Secret Identity
by Mostly Human
Summary: Event after event draws attention to Danny Fenton, and everyone begins to realize that there is more to this boy than they've been lead to believe. Under more scrutiny than ever it's hard to know for certain that Danny will keep his secret. People gossip about Fenton and Phantom, and with a stupid move from his parents the facade might come crumbling down.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

"Teachers," the announcement echoed through the entire school, "you will each bring your class to the auditorium immediately. There will be no stops between your classroom and the auditorium." The teachers and students of Casper High listened with fearful attention to the loud speaker instructions. Some of them thought of escape, but the voice quickly quelled those thoughts. "There will be no escapes. The exits are barred, and I have a friendly sniper on the roof ready should anyone leave the building without permission." The reactions to these words varied. There were a few whimpers and choked sobs at the thought of their possible death. There were some who were fighting to stay conscious despite their hyperventilating. Most commonly students clung closely to their friends fearfully praying for a hero to save them. Then there was a small group of four students who reacted differently than everyone else, and those students all happened to be in the same class.

Valerie Grey was looking down at the pale scratched wood of her desk, unseeing. Her hands were clenched into fists and were shaking, not with fear, but with barely held back rage. She knew monsters like this existed, and she knew that there was a chance of them attacking her school, but that wasn't what made her angry. If it was just that the school was being attacked she'd rush out of the class and take care of the scum with her suit. This was different then all those other times she'd done it though. This time they were human, and that was what made her so angry. Yes she was used to monsters, but they were literal monsters aka not human. That a human was capable of causing such fear, and that she couldn't protect everyone this time infuriated the girl.

Tucker Foley was doing a much better job of hiding his emotions. One of those emotions was fear, but not fear for his life, like everyone else, but fear for his friends. Daniel Fenton, Danny to his friends and family, had a problem with saving people. It was just kind of what he did, but he did it in a unique way. In this way no one knew Danny Fenton was anything other than a lazy, normal teenager. That was the way Danny liked it. No attention, no problems, except in times like these when he couldn't save people for risk of revealing his secrets. Samantha Manson was the other best friend in the trio. Tucker was worried about her, because he knew she would drive herself crazy in worry over Danny. She and Danny were so in love it almost wasn't even funny anymore.

What Tucker wasn't afraid of was the morons taking over the school. This was just a little different from the everyday in the life of the tech support to a superhero. This mostly unknown fact about the school's resident technogeek was highlighted by the way his fingers raced silently across the keys of his ever handy PDA he'd lovingly named Cherl. Tuckers dark green eyes were locked on the screen as he looked over hundreds of websites finding information on who they were up against. He was preparing for the battle to come, because even if they couldn't do anything now, the inaction wouldn't last.

Samantha Manson, known as Sam to anyone who wanted to live, was the physical support to that same superhero Tucker was helping. She watched as week after week her best friend flew through her window, beaten and battered, looking for medical care that he couldn't get anywhere else. He risked his life daily so that the town would be safe from the invading ghosts, and he suffered because of it, but, as he continuously reminded her and Tucker, Danny wouldn't have it any other way. Danny lived to save people, and he couldn't live with himself if people got hurt when he could protect them. Sam knew he was too hard on himself. Everyone knew he was too hard on himself. Everyone but him. Sam was scared, but only of Danny getting hurt. Physically or emotionally this situation seemed designed to get him hurt, and it made the strong girl afraid. That was the only fear she showed as her lavender eyes glued themselves to Danny.

Danny Fenton wore a grim expression no one would ever expect to see on the young teen. His sky blue eyes were the same color as a stormy sea, darkened with unsettling experiences. His brows were furrowed in thought, and his head tilted down to hide his expression behind his raven locks. Not that anyone ever paid him any attention. Hiding who he was was a deeply ingrained habit by this point, because Danny Fenton went by another name, Danny Phantom. No one, except his two friends, knew the town hero Phantom was Danny, and Danny didn't want it any other way. There are good and bad sides to every decision though, and having a secret identity meant he couldn't just fly through the walls and beat some sense into the human idiots holding the school hostage.

Like Valerie, it frustrated Danny to be bound by his lies, but Danny was also filled with worry, guilt, sorrow, and above everything else determination. Worrying about his secret identity instead of taking the bad guys down made Danny feel guilty. He stuck to his lies, because there were still many people who thought Phantom had malicious intent. It made him sad that people still hated him simply for what he was, but that didn't mean he'd let anyone die, not on his watch. Danny had promised to protect the people, and though no one knew what he did for them, they would surely learn the hard way if he stopped. That was the last thing he wanted, and despite being unable to "go ghost" as he normally would, he would find a way to save everyone.

Everyone was still panicking about the information that there was a sniper on the roof when the loud speakers said, "You have five minutes." Then there was a quiet click as the PA system turned off, and the announcement stopped.

The sudden silence was surreal, but it didn't last. "O-okay everyone, I want you to line up single file." Mr. Lancer spoke to his english class. He tried to sound brave to prevent panic, "Line up and then we will be leaving immediately for the auditorium, and I want everyone to behave. If we keep calm and don't antagonize these men we will likely all make it out unharmed." Danny silently commended his english teacher for his bravery. The teacher's voice had only shaken a little, and the class seemed much calmer, even if they were still terrified. The class lined up quickly, and Mr. Lancer grabbed the attendance list before leading his class into the rapidly filling halls.

Moving to the auditorium was hectic to say the least. Small groups of students talked to their friends from their class as they were rushed through the school, and each small voice added to the large amount of jumbled sound. In the auditorium was only worse. The small groups of students that were talking multiplied and echoed in the large space. The large space was quickly filling and Mr. Lancer took his class to their allotted spot and sat them down.

Danny was sitting between Sam and Tucker. He turned to the later and asked, "Do you know who they are?"

Tucker nodded once, "Yes. There are three of them, and they call themselves the three musketeers." Sam snorted at the lame name, but Tucker looked grim as he continued, "They are called that because of their proficiency with firearms. They were soldiers who didn't feel they were being paid enough for the jobs they were sent on in the military. They went awol after they were discovered to be in possession of large amounts of foreign currency. It was confirmed as stolen and the three have been running toward the Canadian border ever since."

"How do you even get this information Tuck?" Danny asked incredulously before he reconsidered, "You know what? I don't want to know."

"Plausible deniability right?" Sam snarked.

Tucker laughed and Danny said, "Something like that."

"So what's the plan?" Sam brought them back to focus.

Danny spoke so quietly that Sam and Tuck had to lean in to hear him. "These guys haven't killed anyone yet, but we know if push comes to shove they are soldiers. They have taken a life before and will take another if they have to." Sam and Tucker nodded wearing the same grim determined expression as Danny. "They want to reach the border, but they are here, which means they were forced to stop. That means they are going to get desperate. They will likely put one or more people at gun point."

"I don't like where this is headed." Sam mutter to her teammates.

"Don't worry it will probably take them a while to reach that point." Danny said.

"Oh, yeah. I feel loads better now. Thanks." Sam said sarcastically. Danny glared and Sam cracked, "Fine how do we prevent someone from getting shot then?"

"Worse case scenario, I get shot instead of a human." Danny said calmly.

Before he could continue Sam whisper yelled, "Are you crazy!? You can still die ectoplasm-for-brains!"

Tucker intervened, "Like Danny said, we have a while til it comes to that. Though I agree with Sam that it's stupid to even think about taking a bullet at this point. It's not the time to think about that." Tucker locked his forest green eyes with the hardened eyes of his friend. "Danny, you're right. If it comes to them picking out people from the crowd, you are the best option."

It was Tucker's turn to get whisper/yelled at by Sam she opened her mouth and sucked in a breath, but before she could say anything Tucker held up his hand and said, "Just hear me out." Sam glared but stayed silent. "Okay if Danny is taken hostage he'll be able to hear their plans because of his enhanced hearing, then he can use a duplicate to tell us their plans."

Sam and Danny looked impressed, and Sam said, "That is actually really smart."

"I resent the surprised tone." Tucker muttered, but he was smiling at the praise all the same.

"So there's at least part of a plan." Danny said.

"It's better than we usually do at this stage." Sam replied.

"True." Danny concieded with a nod.

Tucker then added, "We probably shouldn't even attempt to make any further plans since they never pan out right anyway. In what little we have I bet something will go wrong."

"Jeez, Tucker, have a little faith." Danny said.

"Yeah I thought I was supposed to be the goth." Tucker's response to Sam was cut off by one of the jailers.

"Silence!" a man yelled loudly into a megaphone. Danny grabbed his ears in pain from his enhanced hearing. Sam massaged his head sympathetically.

A smooth voice said, "I am Alister Martin." Danny glared at the man. The man had blond hair, grey eyes, and an impressive build that was accentuated by the man's ratty tank top and a pair of well worn jeans. In Alister's left hand was a semi-automatic handgun, and he spoke into the megaphone in his right hand. "I am in charge of this little affair, and I wanted to make some things very clear before we get started."Alister held everyone's attention, and when he wasn't speaking the silence was so thick you could practically feel it weighing on you. Alister was very professional as he said, "From this moment on you will not speak. Not even to the person next to you." No one thought of disobeying the man, but just incase he added, "I see you speak I my finger might just slip, and press this trigger." He waved his gun making it flash in the overhead lights.

The brief silence that followed the man's words was cut short by Danny, who shocked everyone by yelling out, "Is that thing even loaded?"

Alister glared towards Danny's class, and the people around Danny shivered as his eyes scanned them, but he couldn't see who said it. "Who said that? Stand up!" The man commanded.

Calmly Danny rose to his feet and tried to do his best arrogant dim-wit impression. Some of the smarter people caught on to the personality change and were even more confused than the people who didn't catch on to Danny's tough guy act. "I did. You wouldn't actually shoot anyone. What is this some cheesy movie? I bet that thing's not even real." Danny foolishly challenged the man. Everyone was looking at Danny like he was suicidal.

Mr. Lancer was brave enough to turn to Danny with a shaky voice, "M-mr. Fenton sit d-down!" His shaking made his voice lose most of it's authority and Alister just waved him off.

"Take your own advice old man." Then the man's eyes glittered with amusement at seeing the figure of Danny, who was trying to look as weak as possible while pretending to be overconfident. It was a difficult task. Danny had to stand so his baggy shirt hid all his muscles, but he couldn't slump. "What's your name kid?" The predator asked.

"Danny." Danny tried to seem arrogant. The school held it's breath as it watched Danny talk to the man with the gun, and the man just laughed.

"I like you kid. You're cocky." Alister smirked in a way that made him look almost friendly. The students and teachers found themselves almost believing that the man could at least be reasonable. Then without his expression changing the blond man fired his gun into the ceiling. Everyone in the room jumped, even Danny, because he was trying to look normal. "You're lucky I like you, otherwise that bullet would have been in you." Alister's smirk became a full smile as he asked, "Anyone else have questions? No?" He mocked them. "Good. You will stay silent and still. Anyone speaks or tries to escape, and I'll have my friend shoot Danny there first." Alister nodded at Danny and then turned his back to leave, missing Danny's own brief smirk before he sat back down in his seat.

Almost as soon as Alister left a new man entered. This new guy was about a head shorter than the leader with dark brown hair and eyes to match, but his sheer muscle made him more intimidating than Alister. The man lazily leaned against the wall by the door and scanned the students, like a tiger in a zoo watches the children play just outside its enclosure after it's just finished lunch. There was no intent to kill them yet, but you knew he was thinking about it anyway. The man stood there with pistol in hand watching students squirm. The man seemed to enjoy smiling darkly at specific students and watching their fear. Mikey almost wet himself, but eventually the man grew bored with his little game and settled more comfortably against his wall. After about an hour standing watching the students the man spoke into a radio with a gruff voice. "Martin where are we?" Danny noted that the man used Alister's last name, meaning that the three men weren't close.

Over the radio Alister Martin's voice spoke, contrasting with the guard's, "Don't ask questions over the radios, Drake." Danny knew Alister didn't want the school to overhear his conversations, and the man, Drake, apparently thought so too, because he walked out the auditorium doors to talk to his superior. Danny made a note that Drake wasn't too bright.

For a while left alone everyone stayed silent and still. They watched the door to see if the men were coming back, but after two minutes Valerie decided to risk it. She turned to Danny behind her and said, "Are you insane Fenton!?"

Everyone turned in their seats to watch as Danny rubbed the back of his neck. He looked exactly like the nervous Fenton everyone was use to. "Val."

"Don't you 'Val' me Daniel! What were you thinking? Do you have a death wish?" Valerie said.

"No I don't, I", Danny started, but Valerie cut him off again.

"And you two!" She pointed accusingly at Sam and Tucker. "You two are his best friends why would you let him try a stupid stunt like that?" Sam and Tucker were about to defend themselves when they were interrupted.

"Valerie!" Danny almost yelled to get her attention, "I know that looked stupid, but I'm trying to do something here. I know that could have ended badly, but it's only a matter of time, if were not careful, that this ends badly for someone anyway."

"What so that was meant to do something then!?" Valerie asked still fuming.

"Yes." Danny stated calmly, "I got his attention. Now when he takes some of us away to use as a strategic ploy I'm on the list of people he's going to use, and that gives me more power over him later."

Everyone was shocked. Danny just admitted to trying to manipulate their captors. They thought Danny was stupid, but here he was acting like this was some sort of chess game. "It's still stupid." Valerie insisted after a moment.

Danny ignored her and said, "Be quiet they're coming back."

No one was really sure whether to believe him that they were coming back, but just as everyone turned to look, the door opened and Alister walked back in with Drake. Most people noted that Alister's gray eyes fell on Danny before anyone else. Danny was already back in character of the inexperienced tough guy. Alister looked around the room and then leaned to his partner and pointed people out. He pointed to Mr. Lancer, Dash Baxter, Danny, and a senior named Jessica. Drake nodded and moved around the room collecting people. Jessica was the closest, and Drake practically had to drag her forward, she was shaking so bad. Then he grabbed Dash who was no better than Jessica, but he whimpered in fear and tried to move away fro Drake when the man grabbed him. Drakes last trip was to Danny and Mr. Lancer. Mr. Lancer wasn't shaking like Jessica and Dash, but he was pale and clammy, and his walk was stiff. Danny slumped his shoulders pretending to cower, and put stress on his hands to make them shake as he was dragged along.

With the two men and the four hostages in gathered Alister nodded to Drake who took them out of the room. Danny tried to make his form as diminutive as possible, and slightly hid behind Mr. Lancer who was in front. Drake lead them down the halls and Danny recognized the way to the school's basement. Drake stopped at the door and motioned them forward. When no one moved immediately the large man rolled his brown eyes and shoved them in. Mr. Lancer caught himself on his hands and knees, but Danny and Jessica fell to the floor. Dash's athletic skills allowed him to keep his balance if only barely, and he stumbled into the room, catching himself on a stack of boxes. Before any of them could react the door behind them closed and they were left alone in the dimly lit concrete room.

Danny used his fake fall to his advantage and quickly scanned the area as he stood up. There was a camera in the corner of the room, and a speaker, but no mike. Danny looked down to hide his smirk. This meant they could talk without Alister and friends noticing them.

Unfortunately Dash noticed Danny's smirk. "What are you so happy about Fentoad!?" Dash gripped the front of Danny's shirt and pushed him up against the wall.

"Mr. Baxter! Put him down!" The teacher commanded.

With great reluctance Danny was released, and he said, "I'm not happy about any of this Dash, but it's nice to know that even though they're watching us," Danny nodded to the camera in the corner, "they're not listening to us."

Jessica huffed with annoyance, "What the hell are you talking about, nerd?"

Danny sighed internally. The people of Amity could be so dense at times. "I mean the type of camera/speaker system they've set up over there doesn't have a microphone. So I can gloat that my plan to get taken hostage worked."

"Oh yeah. It worked perfectly, but now you are trapped in a basement instead of in the auditorium. Cause that's super helpful." Jessica's voice dripped sarcasm.

Danny waved a hand dismissively at Jessica. "Hold on. Let me think."

"Let you think? Like that will do us any good." Dash said sarcastically.

Surprisingly it was Mr. Lancer who came to Danny's rescue. "Let the boy think, Dashiel. After all I think we could all use some time with our thoughts."

Danny flashed his teacher a grateful smile and closed his eyes to "think". Of course he wasn't really thinking about anything. Danny was focusing on his enhanced hearing. Drake had stopped just out of human hearing range and was on the radio talking about the plan.

"So you can see them?" Drake said.

"Yeah. They were fighting for a bit, but now they seem more settled." A radio voice answered. Danny didn't recognize it, so he assumed it was the third man, the sniper.

"Fighting?" Alister asked.

Sniper chuckled, "Yeah the scrawny, black haired kid got pushed against the wall by the blond jock. I didn't catch the conversation, but looks like those two don't get along well."

"Keep on them, Isaac, don't even worry about escape attempts. We have them terrified into inaction." Alister said.

The sniper, now Isaac, said, "You got it, Marty." Danny was confused about the use of the nick name. It was obviously short for Martin, as in Alister, but he thought the men weren't on first name terms. Maybe Alister just didn't like his first name. Danny would have to remember that.

For a while things were quiet, and Danny was about to stop listening in when he heard Isaac say, "You never answered the question of what we were gonna do here. We got Millitary headed in here fast. We can't outrun them, we can't outgun 'em, so what? Do we outsmart them?"

The radios were quiet and then Alister answered, "That's why we took hostages. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em, or in this case make them join you. Starting with-" Danny didn't hear the rest because Dash finally lost his patience.

"Fenton!" Dash yelled making Danny wince and open his eyes. Everyone in the room was exactly where he saw them last, and they were all staring at him.

"Yeah Dash?" Danny asked cautiously. All the staring was making him nervous. Briefly he wondered if everyone had just been staring at him the entire time he was listening in on the radios.

The thought was stopped short when Dash said, "So?" Danny gave Dash a look that clearly said he didn't understand the question. "Did you think of anything?"

Danny barely bit back a curse as he remembered his stupid excuse. Then Danny really started thinking about what he'd heard. Drake was watching the auditorium, Isaac was watching Danny and the others, and Alister was the brains of the operation. The brainiac had a plan involving the hostages, and he was going to bargain with or blackmail the military to get out of the situation. All Danny really needed to know was how Alister planned to use the hostages, but he missed that part because of Dash. Danny tallied the information in his head in under a second and then slowly answered Dash. "Yes and no."

"Care to share with the rest of the class." Jessica huffed.

"Tucker was able to get some information on these guys when they were yelling over the PA system. Apparently these guys call themselves the Three Musketeers because they like to play with guns. They were in the military and got sent overseas, but they felt they weren't being paid enough for what they were being asked to do. Soon after they became restless and then they were found with a fortune in foreign currency. They went awol after they hit the states, and then the currency was found to be stolen. Ever since they've been running as fast as they can toward the Canadian border." Danny decided it was best to explain the background of these people first.

"How did that geek get that information, Fenturd?" Dash demanded.

Danny sighed, "Everyone has their own types of skills, Dash. Tucker just happens to be a very skilled tech geek." Danny didn't say anything further.

"Well I have to say these men sound dangerous, Daniel." Mr. Lancer said, ignoring that Tucker was likely a hacker.

Danny nodded yes to Lancer's assessment, and Jessica said, "You still haven't answered Dash's question."  
"Fine." Danny said. Not planning on telling the other three captives very much Danny started, "They have been on the run for weeks now, and they never stop for very long, and definitely never in a school. Somethings different with this stop."

"Meaning?" Jessica prompted.

"Meaning they are changing their plans. They're desperate. Military is catching up to them, or has caught up, and they can't run. There are only three of them so they can't fight their way out, and that leaves one option. They have to outsmart the military." Danny started pacing back and forth. "The problem is I can only see a few options that would require them to take over a school."

"Spit it out!" Dash said letting his impatience win again.

Danny glared at Dash forgetting for a second he was supposed to pretend to be weak and scared. "We're hostages. Bargaining chips, and we're not in short supply. They've got a full school full of American children. That means they can kill one or two of us off and then threaten the rest to make the military give in to their demands."

Everyone in the room paled at the news that these men were likely planning on killing someone. Jessica tried to keep up her tough front, but she stuttered, "S-so what now?" Jessica was looking to Danny for answers, and Dash watched to see how Danny would answer. Mr. Lancer stood behind them awkwardly looking at Danny, feeling guilty about not coming up with a plan himself.

"Nothing yet." Danny said. His words didn't put confidence into his fellow captives. "We have to wait for them to make the next move." After that they all went silent, waiting, some more patiently then others. Jessica sank to the floor and leaned against a stack of boxes with her head in her hands. Mr. Lancer similarly found himself a box to sit on as he stared unseeing at the wall across from him. The teacher was completely still except for when he would occasionally rub his arms. Dash paced with nervous energy, and his footsteps filled the room. Danny moved himself so he was just within the sight of the camera and leaned against the wall. Out of all of them he was the only person to seem relaxed.

Danny had been leaning against the wall longer than the full humans thought should be comfortable, so they were a little startled when Danny perked up and looked at the door. The others in the room watched the scrawny kid as his eyes slid over the room before he seemed to make a decision about something. Then Danny angled himself slightly away from the door and started staring off into the space above Mr. Lancer's head.

Dash opened his mouth to ask what Danny's weird behavior was about, but just after he sucked in a breath the door opened and Dash let out an undignified squawk instead. There was a deep chuckle from Drake as he walked through the door. Lancer and Jessica shot to their feet, and everyone, except Danny, backed away from the man. Drake's brown eyes scanned over the room. Dash, Jessica, and Lancer all shuddered. Danny watched the cruel eyes approach his and knew this was going to be a difficult acting job. Drake's eyes reached Danny, and the pale boy widened his eyes and pretended to shudder. Drake smirked maliciously, not seeming to notice anything out of the ordinary, and for that Danny once again thanked his acting abilities. Then the gruff voice of Drake said, "You." He pointed to Mr. Lancer, "We need the master key. Where is it?"

Mr. Lancer reached a shaking hand into his pocket and came out with a single key jangling on a ring."I-I-I h-have i-it." Lancer said holding the ring out to the man.

Drake walked up to the group in two large steps and took the key. Then he started to turn and everyone felt relieved that that was all the man had wanted, but the thought only lasted a brief second. As Drake spun away from his captives he grabbed Danny's arm and pulled Danny along with him. Danny reacted with a real sound of surprise and Mr. Lancer called Drake to stop, but Drake ignored the teacher and quickly left the room, locking it behind him.

The large man shoved Danny in front of him, and when Danny turned he saw the man had drawn his pistol. "Move." Drake commanded gesturing Danny forward with his gun. Danny complied trying to mask his irritation as fear, or if he could manage it terror, and they both left the basement behind. Drake pushed and shoved Danny to make his go in the right direction, and Danny ended up in front of the electrical control room.

Alister walked around a corner to meet them just seconds after Drake stopped. "You have it?" Alister asked. Drake wordlessly handed the blond the master key, and Alister smirked as he took it. "Good work, Soldier." Alister smirked when his little jibe made Drake growl. Drake refused to rise to the bait and stalked past Alister into the freshly opened room. Alister only had to look at Danny before Danny followed the larger man in.

The room was small, only about ten by ten, and an entire wall was taken up by electrical wires and control panels. On the wall next to the wiring there was a desk with a computer and a phone. Behind the door there were four chairs stacked up. Drake took two of the chairs down and placed one in back of the room, farthest from the door, and placed another by the wires. Alister pushed Danny into a chair, and Drake sat down in the one by the wires. Alister checked over a couple of the panels before the phone started ringing. He gave a significant look to Drake and then told Danny to stay quiet before he picked up the phone.

Danny heard from over the phone. "This is Captain Gale Morgan of the military police."

"Hello, Captain Morgan." (AN: I couldn't resist.) Alister interrupted, "This is Martin, and I want to make you a deal."

"The united states doesn't deal with terrorists." the captain spoke in a cold tone.

"Ooh, terrorist." Alister said in mock offence. "That hurts." Then the blond smirked, "But I suppose it's appropriate. After all I have taken a school hostage."

"You don't want to do this, Martin." The woman over the phone warned, but Alister ignored her.

"I want nine million dollars delivered to the roof of Casper High. I want it delivered by a military chopper flown by an unarmed civilian." Alister continued.

"We can't do that. You know we can't. No matter what you do." Morgan said.

"Oh really?" Alister said, "That's too bad, because every half hour I don't get my money I drop another kid. Starting with this one." Alister turned to Danny smirking. Danny tried to look fearful. "Danny why don't you come say hi." Alister held the phone out for Danny.

Danny stood shakily and walked slowly to the phone. "H-h-hello?" Danny made his voice crack mid word.

"Danny. I'm Captain Gale Morgan, and I'm going to get you and your schoolmates out of there okay?" Danny didn't get to answer.

Alister took the phone from Danny and shoved him back into his seat. "Half an hour." Alister said into the phone before placing the phone back on it's cradle. The phone immediately started ringing again, but Alister hung up the call after one ring. He turned to Drake, "I've got him and the phone. Go watch the auditorium." Drake nodded and marched out the door.

Then it was just Danny and Alister. Keeping up the facade of a stupid, brave teenager Danny asked, "Why me first?" Danny didn't bother with a stutter it was to hard to keep up.

Alister looked amused. "Set an example for all the other kids who think of talking back. I know you don't want to die, but think of it this way. You'll be teaching Captain Morgan and your classmates a valuable lesson." Danny stayed silent until Alister had hung up the phone enough times that the military police stopped calling and he said, "Oh come on Dan. This is most likely your last," Alister looked at his watch, "twenty minutes. are you really going to spend it in silence?"

"What do you want me to say?" Danny said in a dead tone to match his sentence.

"Anything. Questions? Regrets?" Alister prompted watching Danny with a scrutinizing glare.

Danny needed to make Alister look away so he could send an invisible duplicate to Tucker and Sam. The opportunity came when he spotted dog tags on the desk behind Alister. "What are those?" Danny pointed to the necklace behind Alister. Alister looked behind him and swiftly looked back, but Danny had already made the duplicate he needed.

"Really? They are just dog tags. Surely you can come up with something better." Alister said slightly suspicious.

Danny decided that this man was more observant than his companions, so he'd tell a partial truth to throw him off. "I have a lot of secrets."

"And." Alister said when Danny stopped talking.

"And I lie in almost every sentence I speak. There are only three people who know my secrets, and I've even lied to them a couple of times." Danny said.

"This bugs you. What about it?" Alister pushed.

Danny glared at the man. "Why should I tell you, Ali?" Danny threw in the nickname just to mess with the guy.

It worked and Alister visibly worked to hold back a snarl. "You have ten more minutes." Alister said cruelly. "Why shouldn't you?" The blond man countered.

Danny winced theatrically. "I, guess you're right." Danny sighed and looked at his toes. "It bothers me because I love my parents, and they love me, but I don't know if they would love me if they knew my secrets. My sister knows, but now she is forced to lie with me. My grades suffer and I come home after curfew, and I don't know if them knowing my secret would make them proud of me or if they would hate me." Danny said quickly.

Alister hmmed, and rubbed his chin, "So you have a secret you are keeping from everyone except your sister, because you think you're parents would hate you?" Danny nodded and Alister started laughing.

"What!?" Danny asked feigning insult.

"I wish my problems were so small that." Alister said.

"Who said my secret was small?" Danny mumbled the sentence under his breath so Alister couldn't hear, but the guy heard him anyway.

"What is your secret then?" Returning his cold gray eyes to the young teen.

Danny glared at Alister and opened his mouth to speak, but instead of Alister hearing Danny, they both heard Isaac over the radio. "Martin we have a problem. you need to come take a look at this."

"I've got the first kid." Alister said.

"Bring him." Isaac immediately replied.

"Well you heard him. Up." Alister waved Danny out the door and then lead him to a classroom down the hall.

 _AN: Chapter one done. This story has kind of evolved as I've written it, and I've got 11 chapters done already, so I'll be posting weekly for a while before I've exhausted my backlog. I hope you enjoy this, and I look forward to reading any reviews. Until next week._


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Isaac was a few inches shorter than Alister, and just a little slimmer. He had dark olive skin, close cropped black hair, and black eyes, but the man's most noticeable feature was a knife scar that ran from the top of his left cheekbone to his ear.

"Look." Isaac pointed to one of five computer monitors that were surrounding him. On the screen there was a swat team headed into a back entrance.

"That's cocky of them." Alister snached Danny by his hair and turned on the PA system.

Over the loudspeakers everyone heard, "Hey! Let go of me!" as Danny struggled, and then they heard the noise of Danny getting punched in the stomach and dropped to the floor. Then there was a gunshot and a scream.

Finally Alister spoke. "Get out or Drake releases a round on the rest of them." He cocked his gun for sound effect as Danny whimpered in the background.

The team looked up and saw the cameras and quickly moved back out of the building. Sam and Tucker like everyone else heard the gunshot and scream. "Danny!" they both yelled at the same time.

"Shut up!" Drake shouted at them pointing his gun.

Tucker quieted, but Sam knew the scream ment Danny was alive. "Please. He's my best friend. I need to see him."

"Did you not hear me girl?" Drake asked cocking his gun.

Sam was truly afraid, but Danny needed her. "Then shoot me next."

"What!?" Drake suddenly stopped confused.

"You're shooting more people if they don't give into your demands, so take me to Danny and you can shoot me next." Sam was very careful not to let her voice waver. Tucker was shooting Sam questioning looks, but she ignored him.

Drake raised an eyebrow and relayed the situation to Alister who said, "Put her with the others. I'll have Isaac take the boy back as well."

"You got it." Drake replied and then watched as Sam walked down to him. "Come on." She nodded and followed him to the basement. Then he opened the door and Sam saw Danny.

He was laying on the floor surrounded by a pool of his own blood, but Danny was still breathing shallowly so Sam raced in. "Danny!" Drake rolled his eyes and closed the door.

Danny opened his eyes and smiled at Sam, but it came out more like a grimace because of the pain. "Hi." he said weakly.

"You idiot!" Sam ranted, "Are you trying to get yourself killed? Ever heard the phrase live to fight another day!?" As she spoke she walked to the box Mr. Lancer had been sitting on and pulled out a first aid kit from behind it. Suddenly she turned on Dash, "You." Dash, who was already shaking and crying from the sight of so much blood, cowered before the shouting goth. "I need you to carry Danny and place him over here." When Dash didn't move immediately she yelled louder, "Now!" Dash quickly moved to do as she asked after that.

The jock gently picked up the boy he'd so often stuffed into lockers and carefully moved him to the spot Sam had indicated. Sam stopped yelling and kneeled next to Danny, ignoring the blood staining her knees. Then she opened the first aid kit. It was the special one that the loser trio, as Sam, Tucker, and Danny were often called, had hidden for emergencies. She started with a bottle of water and slowly washed some of the blood away. Then she quickly got to work taking the bullet out with a pair of tweezers. Danny had no more warning than, "This is going to hurt worse than getting shot." Still he managed not to scream, even if he couldn't hide that he was in pain. Then with a similar warning to the one before Sam pulled out a small curved needle and stitched the wound closed. Sam handled it like a pro, and after disinfecting and wrapping the wound she was done.

The other three captives in the room were amazed that Danny never screamed, not even when Sam had pulled out the bullet, but after she finished wrapping him he was left gasping like he'd run a marathon. He was pale and sweaty and covered in blood, but he was alive. "Thanks, Sam." He said in a rough voice.

"You know I hate stitches." She meant to continue reprimanding him for being reckless, but her voice was too full of emotion and Danny knew she meant that she hated to see him hurt and was worried. Sam's sentence made everyone besides Danny wondered if Sam had one stitches before.

"I'm sorry for doing this to you Sam. Though you know you're as good, if not better than any doctor I could go to." Danny complemented.

"That's because you can't go to a doctor dork." Sam chuckled weakly, and Danny smiled though it was a little sad.

"You know what I meant." Danny said.

"Samantha, what are you two talking about? Surely you are not implying that you've given Danny stitches before?" Mr. Lancer demanded an explanation.

Danny jumped having forgotten the presence of the other captives, and then winced at the resulting pain, though it was starting to get better thanks to his super healing. Sam also jumped and spun to face Lancer, "I, um, no! Where would you make that assumption? That's crazy." She smiled innocently and the captives bought it.

Suddenly Danny's eyes widened and he said, "Sam check the time." Sam looked down at her watch and Danny said, "How long has it been since I was shot?"

"Ten minutes, just about. Why?" Sam asked.

"Shit!" Everyone even Sam was surprised. Danny never cussed. He always chose to use the more mild words of his father, like fudge, so if he was cussing this was serious.

"What?" Sam asked.

"I only have twenty minutes to enact my plan before he shoots the next person, and he won't let the next one live." Danny said.

"I was actually curious. Why are you alive?" Sam asked knowing full well that these men were more than capable of shooting a boy point blank in the head.

The entire room listened closely to Danny's every word. "There was a swat team coming in, so instead of killing me instantly in five minutes they bumped up the time and shot me so I'd bleed out. They could have hit me in the head, or heart," he said mirroring Sam's thoughts, "but they didn't, and now they think I'm dead."

"Fentur - I mean - Danny, did you forget they are watching us?" Dash almost called Danny Fenturd right after he was shot, but even Dash wasn't that cruel.

Danny deadpanned, "Dash it's right above my head. Of course I know it's there, and so did Sam. That's why she had you move me to the camera's blind spot."

"What does it even matter that they think you're alive or dead!?" Jessica said hysterically, "Even if you weren't shot, even if you weren't locked in a room with us, and even if you were stronger and smarter than you are, how would you go against three military marksman!?"

Danny sighed, "Help me up." Danny bent his knees and held out his arms for Sam to drag him up. Everyone thought he was crazy, but not as crazy as Sam who listened to him and hulled him to his feet.

He wobbled for a second once up and Sam steadied him and asked, "Are you good?" like the answer could be yes after being hulled to his feet ten minutes after being shot.

When Danny smiled and said, "Yeah, just a little vertigo from bloodloss. I'm fine." Mr. Lancer fainted from the shock. Danny and Sam stopped for a second in shock, but then started laughing at their poor teacher. Danny smiled sympathetically down at the man and said, "He really has been brave during this whole thing."

"Uhuh." Sam said sceptically, "I'll believe brave Lancer when I see it. Anyway," Sam switch back to the important topic, "what's the plan?"

"You have to stay here." Danny barely finished before Sam was fighting.

"No! You already got shot!" Sam yelled until Danny covered her mouth. If she could have she would have bit him, but he had her jaw clamped shut so she settled on glaring his to death.

"We don't have time to argue." Danny said before releasing Sam. "They have security cameras, and remember I'm dead." Danny hinted heavily that he was going to go invisible after changing to Phantom, but Dash and Jessica were just confused.

"That doesn't make any sense, Danny." Dash said in frustration, but Sam and Danny ignored the jock.

Sam sighed, "Fine." She gave in. "But only if you promise to come back in one piece." Danny opened his mouth to mention that he was technically still in one piece, but Sam beat him to the punch, "And no holes!"

Danny laughed lightly and said, "No promises." Before Sam could scold him he pulled a nail and a paper clip from the floor and crouched slightly in front of the door to look like he was picking the lock. In reality he just slipped his hand intangibly through the door and unlocked it from the other side, but Dash and Jessica didn't need to know that.

Danny slipped through the unlocked door after telling Jessica and Dash, "Stay put until I tell everyone it's safe over the PA system." Uncharacteristically Dash, who bullied Danny, and Jessica, who was a willful senior, both simply nodded at the order from the younger and smaller boy. Satisfied Danny closed the door behind him, and then with a muttered, "going ghost", he changed from human to ghost, and flew invisibly to the security room. Alister was now watching the cameras, and Danny knew that Drake would be in the auditorium with the kids, and Isaac would be in the electrical control room.

Danny smirked invisibly as he came up with the perfect plan. Danny first created to duplicates, and then he overshadowed Alister with no problems, and then he used the military body to pick up the radio. "Drake, Isaac, I need you here now!" Danny demanded with the practiced authority of a leader.

"What's up?" came Drake's blunt question over the line.

"Just get here." Danny growled. It wasn't often Martin showed any kind of irritation or uncertainty, so Drake and Isaac picked up the pace.

Both of the other "three musketeers" arrived at the same time, and Danny quickly used his duplicated to knock them out with ecto blasts. Then Danny, the original, let Alister's body fall off of him as he went to work tying the three men to wheeled desk chairs. Once Danny was happy with the results he changed back to his human form and turned on the PA system.

"Um, hi." Danny said, "This is Danny Fenton, and I just thought everyone should know Phantom saved us." Danny could hear the cheers from the auditorium loud and clear from the other side of the school. With a grin he turned off the PA system and ran to the auditorium. Students and teachers alike were shouting and cheering, so much so that it hurt the halfas ears, but he grinned none the less. He was here for a reason though, and it wasn't to be fly tackled by Tucker.

"Um love you too bro, but I'm not here for you." Danny shoved Tucker off of him.

"Oh, cruel!" Tucker said clutching his heart, but then Tucker followed Danny. They were too used to life and death situations anyway.

Danny rolled his eyes and ran up to his PE teacher, Tetslaugh. "Ms. Tetslaugh I need your help!" Danny shouted over the noise.

"What's wrong?" The teacher yelled back.

"Mr. Lancer fainted in the basement. Can you come carry him out?" Danny asked. The teacher's eyes went wide and she quickly agreed. Together Tucker and Danny lead the PE teacher to the basement where Jessica, Sam, and Dash were all trying to figure out how to move Mr. Lancer.

Danny moved into the room followed by Tucker and Ms. Tetslaugh, who immediately picked up Mr. Lancer and carried him back out. As soon as Danny spotted Sam moved to his side, and Dash practically shouted, "How!?"

Danny rubbed his ears at the volume and replied, "How what?"

"How did you beat those guys?" Dash said like it was the most obvious thing in the world. It really was very obvious, but then again Danny was clueless.

"Oh, um." Danny rubbed the back of his neck, stalling for time to think up an excuse, and it didn't take long. "Phantom did it! I mean, I saw Phantom tying up the gunmen." Not a lie, but Dash still didn't know anything about Danny's secrets. Those were Danny's favorite type of explanations.

Dash seemed appeased by the answer, and probably would have forgotten about Danny's bullet wound, but Jessica didn't. "Are you okay?" Jessica asked in a nicer tone than she almost ever used.

Danny glanced to Sam who mouthed "shot", and Danny caught the hint and winced. "Y-yeah. Did you have to remind me?" He put his hand to his now scar.

Jessica grimaced, "Sorry. You want help getting to a doctor?" She asked to be polite, but her face clearly said she didn't want to.

"No, no. I'm fine." Danny waved her off, and then he waved everyone out the door. "Come on. We're all free, let's go." He didn't need to tell them twice. Dash was out the door before anyone else, and Jessica followed closely after. Neither noticed that Sam, Tucker, and Danny hadn't followed them.

Tucker looked to Danny, "How are you going to work this one?"

"Everyone heard you scream on the PA system, so you can't just pretend it never happened." Sam added.

Danny smiled. "I'm going to change, shower, and then I'll blame it on Amorpho. I'll just say one of Danny Phantom's allies, not that Amorpho is an ally, switched places with me and pretended to scream."

"Better hop to then." Sam said, "Cause I doubt you have long to get rid of the evidence before the military is pouring in here."

"Oh, yeah." Danny said as he remembered he had to get rid of the blood on the basement floor, and the blood in the security room. Danny quickly made the floor under the spilled blood intangible, and then he said, "I'll see you guys later once I've cleaned up." Sam and Tucker waved and Danny turned invisible and intangible to get rid of all of the evidence.

Ten minutes later Danny came out of the boys locker room completely dry and blood free. There was already Military roaming the halls leading groups of children out. Danny ducked into a group as they were leaving, and seconds later he hit fresh air. He took a deep breath to enjoy his freedom. Everything was five times better after he had a near death experience. He would know, he'd had enough of them. Danny didn't waste anymore time, and he made his way over to a police officer standing by the perimeter.

"Um, hi." Danny said grabbing the man's attention.

The man nodded to Danny and said, "Hello, I'm Officer Faust, can I help you?" The man waited for Danny to offer more information.

"My name is Danny Fenton, and I was the kid everyone thought was shot." The police officer perked up at the sound of Danny's name, and he looked just about ready to pick Danny up and carry him to the closest medic, but the rest of Danny's sentence stopped him.

"Thought was shot? Kid we heard a gun and then a scream." the officer said.

"I-I know, but it wasn't me. It was a ghost pretending to be me." Danny explained.

"Really? Was it Phantom?" Danny was glad to get an Amity Police officer who already knew about the ghosts.

Danny nodded yes, "Him and another ghost switched places with me so that they took the bullet instead of me. I screamed at the right moment, and then the ghost just created an illusion to make it look like the guys shot me."

"That's some lucky break kid. It's good you told me. Now I can call off the search." Officer Faust said before telling the others over his radio the he had Danny, and Danny was fine.

"Um, actually sir." Danny wanted a valid excuse to leave, and this seemed a good way to do it. "I came over here to tell you Phantom left those guys tied up in classroom 156B. I didn't even think about people thinking I'd been shot. I was just going to go home and forget that the school was ever attacked by someone who wasn't dead."

The officer laughed and said, "Well there's nothing stopping you from going home now. Thanks for the info."

Danny shot a your welcome over his shoulder and quickly ran off towards his house. He was going to have to lie to his parents and assure them he was okay, and then he would call up Sam and Tuck. They still didn't know how he beat the three musketeers. Just an average day in the life of a halfa superhero, except for the nagging feeling that Murphy wasn't done with him yet.

 _AN: Hi guys. I got way more people following this story than I expected, and a lot of reviews to go with it. The majority of the reviews said one of three things. 1) I love this fan fiction and can't wait for more. 2) You should update way more than once a week. 3)This idea is so original. It's the third that has really got me thinking. I started this fiction fully intending on writing four or five chapters about Casper getting taken hostage. I spent a day writing out chapters 1 and 2, and I liked the story I came up with, but I think I could do much better with this idea. It's because of the comments about how original this idea is that I'm planning on doing another fan fiction. Once this one is done, I'm going to return to this idea and do it justice, but only after I've finished this one._

 _I got a little case of writers block, and I worked around it, but in the process the story changed from it's original purpose. Now it is somewhat cliche, but I've read what I've written, and I love what I have. Though this wasn't the story I intended I love it all the same, and I hope you will too. I just wanted to let those of you who were hoping for a longer story about the hostage situation to know that I will come back to that idea. I just can't in good conscience not post so many awesome chapters._

 _I also wanted to say something for those of you who thought I should post more often. I thought about it, and you're right. What's the point of having so many chapters if you're only going to post once a week. So now I'm going to be posting twice a week. I'll post once on Fridays and once Tuesdays, and if I run out of chapters I'll just post as I go._

 _Thank you guys for your likes, favorites, and reviews. I really never expected much from this story, but I'm glad you've liked it so far. I'll post again soon (likely under a different name because I can't settle on one), so until Tuesday R &R. _


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

The day of Casper's hostage situation Danny had gone home to find his parents didn't even know about the school being taken hostage, so he just left out the parts he was involved in. His mother was still a little over worried, but his dad saved him saying, "Nothing can defeat a Fenton!" After that his mom let him go back out with Sam and Tucker. Danny spent the rest of the day celebrating another day he half-lived though.

The celebration didn't last. Amity Park, and especially Casper High, was used to ghosts attacking daily, so it wasn't a huge stretch to be held captive by human psychos. The very next day everyone showed up to school, and it continued almost exactly like every other day.

Danny walked into the school with Sam and Tucker. He smirked as he heard gossip from most of the students was focused on how Danny Phantom saved the day once wasn't a mention of Danny _Fenton_ anywhere, now if only he wasn't healing from the broken rib Skulker gave him before school everything would be perfect. Danny smiled absently lost in his own thoughts until Sam waved a hand in front of his face.

"Earth to Ghost boy." Sam said.

"Huh?" Danny's eyes focused on the purple eyed goth in front of him. "Oh, uhh, could you repeat that?" Danny smiled at Sam.

Said goth rolled her eyes. "I was talking about a solution to your money problem."

Danny had been having a problem lately. Because of ghosts Danny constantly arrived home after curfew, and his parents had finally stopped paying him his allowance when they saw his grades, which had also dropped due to ghosts. It wasn't that Danny needed money himself, but he had been supporting his clone Danielle. She had finally settled in the ghost zone in the Far Frozen, and the Yetis were happy to have her, but they didn't have the resources to take care of a human for an extended period. Jazz had come up with their solution. Every week Danny visited Frostbite and Dani, and he brought her groceries, clothes, and other necessities. All Dani needed to do was tell Danny she needed something, and he'd deliver it the very next week.

"Solution?" Danny was very interested.

"Yeah. It's, a little odd, but I think it would be easy for you." Sam said.

"We're dying of curiosity Sam." Tucker's sarcastic tone didn't give away that he was actually really curious, but Sam knew he was, and she ignored the comment.

"Well I was in a crystal figurine shop the other day. My mom dragged me." Sam explained after Danny and Tucker gave her weird looks. "Anyway there were these crystal figurines, and the ones that were the size of your thumb were going for at least $25. The store also had a small glass section and the glass pieces were about a quarter of the price, but still those stupid things cost a fortune."

"So what, Sam?" Danny said, "Why should I care about the price of a little crystal statue? How's that help me make money?"  
"It helps you because you can make one of those little statues in about three seconds flat." Sam said as she pulled on a chain around her neck. She pulled it out so the pendent showed, and on the end there was a diamond shaped ice crystal. It was the one Danny gave her when he first learned to control his powers.

"You're not really suggesting I sell figurines to a crystal shop?" Danny said.

"Actually it's not a bad idea." Tucker sided with Sam for once.

Danny argued, "Of course it's a bad idea. No one is going to buy anything they think was produced by Danny Fenton. The store won't want it because I'm a Fenton, and if anyone else figures out-"

Sam cut him off, "That's why you don't use your name. You already know how to manage two separate names. A pen name is even easier to keep separate."

Danny opened his mouth to argue, but he couldn't think of anything to say, so he closed his mouth again. After a few seconds, just before they walked into their first class, Danny said, "Okay. I'll do it, but you have to help me figure it out."

"Of course we will." Sam said as they sat down in their class. They took no notice of everyone watching them as they entered.

The loser trio were the last to arrive in class, and they barely sat down before the bell rang for class to start. Danny was more awake in this class than he'd been in any class for the past few weeks. The last few weeks the ghosts were relentless. Danny had captured anywhere between seven and fifteen ghosts everyday, and they didn't stop attacking just because Danny was asleep. It was because of ghosts that Danny often fell asleep in class, but not today. Today he was awake, because last night he only had to deal with one appearance from the box ghost.

By the end of class Danny was having a better day than he'd had in a long time. He'd managed to wake up in time to walk to school with Sam and Tucker. He'd fought off Skulker in record time, and he got a B on Mr. Feluca's pop quiz in math. Things were going great, but there was a feeling that things weren't going to stay so perfect for very long.

Danny's gut feeling magnified when Dash walked into the hall, and then walked past without appearing to see them. This was so out of character for Dash that most of the students in the hall stopped talking to stare at either Danny or Dash as he passed. Dash never gave up a chance to wail on Danny unless there was a teacher present. Some student's checked for teachers, but the hallway was just filled with students.

"Did I just imagine that?" Tucker asked stunned.

Sam and Danny shook their heads no in unison, and whispers started up and down the hall. Danny repressed a groan as he realised that moment would be a topic of gossip around the school for a the rest of the day. Danny listened to the people whisper around them, when one string of gossip caught his attention. "Do you think it has something to do with Danny getting shot yesterday?" One guy said.

"Oh yeah. I'd forgotten. He doesn't look like someone who was shot yesterday." The other guy said.

A third person, this one a girl said, "Yeah. You would never guess looking at him with his friends. I didn't even think he'd be in school today." Danny stopped listening in on the conversation when Sam asked him why he was frowning.

Danny shook his head to say not here, and he lead Sam and Tucker to the next class a little early. There was only two people in class so far, and they had another few minutes until the room started to really fill. He turned to his two friends and whispered, "There were a few people talking about how I didn't look like a person who was supposed to have been shot yesterday." Sam and Tuck grimaced with sympathy.

"How are you going to stop that rumor?" Tucker said, "I mean, we know it's true, but that doesn't mean you want everyone else to know."

"Who knew your super healing would be the power that gave you away." Sam chuckled.

"Not funny." Danny glared lightly at his friend. "If it was just a rumor it would be fine, but Jessica, Dash, and Mr. Lancer watched Sam stitch me up."

"Well maybe you can work it in with your Phantom ally story. Say something like the ghost wanted to cause a little mischief by creating the illusion that you were shot." Sam said. The trio didn't notice Star listening in on their conversation.

"You really think they'll believe that?" Danny asked.

"You've made up worse excused before, and this way the news about yesterday, when the police release the story, will validate what you've already said." Tucker commented.

Danny smiled and some of the tension in his shoulders released. "Yeah. You're right. I just have to make the story close enough that the news will back me up." After that the three fell silent so they weren't overheard by the students who were now arriving for class, but it was too late. Star had been listening long enough to know that they were hiding something, and it had to do with the hostage situation the day before. Star wasn't smart enough to figure this out on her own, and she knew it, so she resolved to tell the rest of the A-listers what she heard during lunch.

The class passed by slowly for the blond cheerleader, and she barely paid any attention to the class. Then the bell rang and she shot out of her seat faster than anyone else. For once Paulina was forced to follow Star the girl raced to lunch. Paulina arrived a few seconds after Star and said, "Jeez, Star, what's your problem?"

"Sorry, Polly. I just have some gossip about yesterday's hostage situation." Star explained.

"Ooh, ooh! Tell me! Tell me!" Paulina bounced with excitement making every boy in the vicinity drool.

On the other side of the room Tucker was drooling, and Sam followed his gaze to Paulina bouncing with excitement. She rolled her eyes and said, "I don't know why guys can't see past her looks. She gives new meaning to the word shallow."

"How can you say that!" Tucker exclaimed in defence of the pretty hispanic girl. "Just look at her!"

Sam groaned, "Exactly! That's all there is to her, and you can't see past it."

"Hey guys." Danny walked up with his own tray of food. He'd been held up by the box ghost again. "What are you talking about?"

"Paulina." Danny's friends said at the same time. Sam said her name like it was a curse, while Tucker said her name with reverence he usually reserved for the newest tech.

Danny looked over to where Paulina was now bent over whispering in Star's ear. "What about her?" Danny said. Then he looked back to Sam and Tucker who were both staring at him like he'd gone insane.

"What about her!?" Tucker regained use of his voice first. "Dude, she's gorgeous, what other reason do you need!?"

Danny shrugged and said, "Yeah. She's pretty, but that's all she is. Star is also pretty, and Valerie, and Sam." Danny hadn't meant to say the last name out loud, but it slipped out making Sam blush bright pink and Tucker smirk. He continued as if he never slipped on Sam's name. "You still haven't explained why we're talking about Paulina."

Tucker's smirk widened, "Oh I see why you're suddenly immune to Paulina's charms. So have you asked her out yet?"

"Huh?" Danny tilted his head in confusion.

Tucker smiled, "Have you asked Sam out yet?"

Danny and Sam blushed deep crimson and yelled, "Tucker!" Then Sam proceeded to chase Tucker down and kick him in the shins.

Danny laughed, as usual, at his friends' antics, but it wasn't as enthusiastic as normal. There was a few things on his mind that were distracting him. First he'd been thinking of Sam's idea to sell his ice figurines as art. He didn't consider what he did art. They were just little statues that he made when he was bored. It was an exercise Frostbite had taught him to help control his cyrokinesis. The idea that Danny would be able to turn a profit from his hobby was growing on him though. He was actually liking the idea. He already made the figurines, now he would just be selling them instead of melting them down when he ran out of room. That was only if they proved to be worth anything, and Danny wasn't sure they were, so he'd remain skeptical for now. Danny's thoughts were moved from Sam's idea by Tucker's comment about Danny asking Sam out.

Tucker was always making jokes about Danny liking Sam, and it really irritated Danny, because he knew Sam didn't see him that way. It was really kind of mean on Tucker's part that he kept reminding Danny about his crush when there was no chance of anything coming of it. Some people would have thought from the fake-out-make-outs and the blushy moments, which Danny did notice, that there was some feeling from both sides, but Danny knew differently. He knew Sam didn't think of him as anything more than a friend, and despite all the other stuff other people might interpret as more significant feelings, Danny refused to betray Sam's friendship by trying to force her to feel something more. Danny laughed at Tucker's jokes, because they were just that, jokes, and Danny knew his friend meant no harm. Even if it hurt.

Eventually Sam caught Tucker and happily walked back to the table. Tucker came back a while after rubbing his surely bruised shins and muttering curses about sadistic goths. During the time Sam was hunting down Tuck, Danny was able to eat most of his lunch, a fact he was grateful for when he hear Dash yelling across the room. "Fenton!"

Danny sighed with concealed exhaustion. He was just so tired of pretending to be scared and weak, but it was for his secret identity, so he did it anyway. When Danny heard his name he pretended to look for the source and then trip over his own feet in an attempt to escape. Danny was dragged to his feet by an angry blond jock. "Uhh. Hey, Dash." Danny said in a nervous tone. "What's up?"

"Star had some interesting news, Fentoni, and I wanted your opinion." Dash said. "You see she overheard that you were planning on making up a story about when you got shot yesterday. What do you think of that?" Most people were watching Dash in his daily ritual of beating up Fenton, and they were surprised to hear that Danny was planning on making up a story about the shooting yesterday. They also wondered how someone who got shot the day before looked as good as Danny did now.

Dash's question was too close to the truth for comfort, but Danny was an excellent liar. "I-I wasn't Dash. It's just-"

Dash growled, "Just what Fentina?"

"I wasn't shot." Danny said the words just loud enough for everyone to hear, but not loud enough to be suspicious. He knew it worked when the entire cafeteria went silent. "It was an illusion made by one of Phantom's allies when he saved me yesterday. I was trying to think of a way to dispel the rumors that I'd been shot before they reached my parents and made them freak out." Danny explained.

The jock was so shocked that he let go of Danny and let the smaller boy fall to the floor, but when Danny tried to run it broke Dash from his stupor. "Wait! I'm not done with you." Dash grabbed Danny before he could escape. "I saw you! You were bleeding out in the basement! I saw your freak girlfriend yell at you for being careless! I carried you to the camera's blind spot so that Manson could stitch up the hole in your stomach." Dash yelled in accusation. Dash only sounded louder because of how silent the rest of the large room was. Everyone was shocked to hear Dash so shaken up. The quarterback was talking about a horror story, and Danny just looked confused and a little scared, not that anyone could blame him.

Sam used the opportunity to solidify the story. "I didn't stitch up anyone yesterday." Sam said with a little bit of a nervous quiver.

"I don't know how to answer that, Dash." Danny said to the traumatized blond. "Look," Danny explained, "I was in their security room, and those men saw a swat team sneaking into the school." Everyone in the cafeteria was paying attention to Danny's every word. "Phantom knew the leader was going to shoot me, so he turned my invisible and another ghost created an illusion that I was still there. Then the leader shot the illusion a second later and I screamed in shock. After that Phantom flew me through the wall and dropped me in the locker room and told me to hide until he told me it was safe."

Dash interrupted, "But I wasn't the only one who saw you. Jessica and Mr. Lancer saw everything I did."

"I don't know." Danny said. "Maybe the ghost had to keep up the illusion for some reason. All I know is I waited in the locker room for a few minutes and then Phantom told me it was safe. I went back into the room where they had tried to shoot me and I found them all tied up." Danny finished his story with an internal smirk. This was working perfectly. Everyone would be talking about this, and by the end of the week Mr. Lancer, Jessica, and Dash would all doubt their own memories, maybe even make up new ones to fit the story.

Right now, however was a different story. Dash wasn't buying it. "Fine I'll prove that you were shot." Dash pulled Danny forward by the arm he was still holding and grabbed the bottom of Danny's shirt to pull it up. The jock only got about an inch before he felt his hand stop.

Danny ripped his arm free of Dash's grip and yelled, "What's wrong with you? I told you it didn't happen!" Dash took a step forward and Danny took one back. "I'm not letting you strip me in the middle of the cafeteria to try and prove something that's not true!" Danny's yell projected through the room and when the echoes died Danny ran from the room. Tucker just managed to grab their stuff as he and Sam ran after Danny. As soon as the trio was gone the talking started.

Huffing and puffing Sam and Tucker found Danny in an empty classroom. He was smiling as he told them, "There's not a person in town who won't know the story of what happened, or at least what I said happened."

Sam laughed and Tucker said, "Do you remember when you just barely started and you couldn't lie without chuckling nervously?"

Danny laughed, "Like you were any better."

"Sam was way worse though." Tuck said.

"Hey! I wasn't that bad." Sam tried to defend herself, but the looks she got from Danny and Tucker made her concede. "Okay so maybe I was, but I'm way better now." Danny and Tucker couldn't disagree with that one.

"I'm just glad I dodged the bullet with Dash grabbing my shirt." Danny said.

Sam rolled her eyes. "Really Danny. You 'dodged the bullet'. You couldn't think of a better metafore?"

"It's true for multiple reasons. Everyone really does think I dodged the bullet." Danny smirked.

"But you didn't." Sam retorted. Her tone stopped Danny short. She sounded, sad.

Danny immediately stepped closer to her and asked, "Sam, what's wrong?"

Sam looked down and muttered, "Nothing", under her breath, but Danny wasn't giving up that easily.

Danny placed his hand on her shoulder and Sam looked up, "Tell me, Sam. I know it's not nothing."

Sam surprised both her and Danny by hugging him. Danny hugged her back and she ducked her head so he couldn't see her face as she admitted, "I was really scared when I heard you get shot."

Danny smiled and pulled Sam away from him just slightly, so Sam could see his abs when he pulled up his shirt. "It's just a scar now, a memory. I'm okay." Just on his right side, under a white burn scar, there was a small crater in his skin. It was no bigger than the end of Sam's pinky, but it was one Sam doubted would ever go away completely.

"You shouldn't have all these scars." Sam said.

"I like my scars." Danny said. Sam looked up to meet his eyes, her expression was confused. "I told you. They're memories. They help me remember what I can survive." Sam smiled in understanding as Danny finished his explanation, but now it was time to let Sam go.

Tucker had been watching, at first exasperated that his two best friends were so clueless about their feelings towards each other. Then as the conversation went on Tucker realised they'd forgotten his presence, so he stood as still as he could, not wanting to remind them. It was a long shot, but if Tucker was lucky this would be the day that stupid tension broke. Sam jumped forward and hugged Danny, and Tuck was excited that this was the moment. Quietly Tucker turned on the camera in his PDA and took a picture. It was perfect of Sam buried in Danny's arms while Danny smiled at her. Then Danny started lifting his shirt and though he probably should have wondered before now, Tucker silently asked himself if he should be here. Then Danny gave a brilliant little speech about how he was fine just scarred, and Sam smiled up at him, and Danny smiled down at her, and then. They started to move apart and Tucker couldn't hold it back any more, "Just kiss already!"

His outburst effectively killed the mood and both Sam and Danny jumped away from each other with bright red faces. Tucker sighed and started depressedly counting the money he would be losing on bets when those two were still clueless at graduation. Tucker was so caught up in his mental despair he didn't even notice Sam and Danny yelling at him that they weren't lovebirds. He hadn't even called them lovebirds this time.

Sam was about to attack Tuck again for pointing out the obvious again, but Tucker was saved by the bell and Danny lead his friends to English class. Danny arrived on time to Mr. Lancer's class, but instead of sitting in his regular spot Danny was stopped by the overweight teacher. "Daniel, I'm so glad to see your feeling better."

Danny rubbed the back of his neck nervously and said, "Actually Mr. Lancer I wasn't shot." Danny quickly explained before Lancer had time to say anything. "Phantom saved me, and then there was another ghost that made it look like I was shot. Dash told me what you saw, but it never actually happened."

Mr. Lancer let out a breath of relief. "Well that is wonderful news Daniel. I wish I hadn't seen it, but I feel better knowing you never experienced that." Mr. Lancer seemed to be avoiding saying the words shot and wound as hard as he could, and Danny was glad once again for the ignorance of his town.

"You and me both Mr. Lancer." Danny said with a smile before he lowered himself into his regular seat. Seconds later the class started and Mr. Lancer changed the curriculum and gave everyone a simple poem instead of the essay he'd been planning. The trio shared a look that no one else understood, but they knew that Danny had made his teachers day with his lie.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

The next day Danny's story was pretty much the only topic of gossip. Whether they were talking about how Phantom saved everyone again, how Danny ran from the room, or how Dash actually enjoyed trying to strip Danny, all the students were talking about Danny's story. That last rumor made Dash go back to beating Danny up to try and regain some respect, but it only seemed to make things worse.

Things for Danny were generally back to normal. He'd gotten to bed late after hunting ghosts, then he woke up early for the same purpose. Sam and Tucker walked him to school, and he tried desperately to finish his homework under the desk. Math was interrupted by the Box Ghost, and Dash shoved Danny around in lunch. Everything was normal, except people were paying way more attention to him than normal.

Usually the students of Casper completely ignored the loser trio unless Dash was beating up Danny, Sam was causing chaos, or Tucker was being kicked from the girls locker room. However today was the second day after the hostage situation, and the first day after Danny had run out of the cafeteria when Dash tried to strip him. The students really weren't sure what they were more interested in, the hostage story, or Dash trying to take off Danny's clothes. All the extra attention was making Danny a little paranoid. Sam and Tucker tried to calm him, but after a while they gave up. They would just have to accept a paranoid Danny until the gossip died down.

To say Danny was grateful for the last class of the day would be an understatement. Skulker had attacked after lunch, and Danny was wiped. All he wanted to do was nap, but it was the last period, so he decided to try and pay attention. After all his grade in this class could really use a bump.

Mr. Lancer saw red as he spotted yet another teen in his class listening to music. A week ago he'd realised one of the students in his class was wearing headphones and hiding the wire under his jacket. Mr. Lancer had taken the kid's music devise for the rest of the day, but since then the poor english teach had found four other students doing the same thing. That made Ms. Andrews the fifth person to break his rule. Mr. Lancer was about to call the young Star Andrews out on her rule breaking when he caught sight of something on his desk.

It was a book he'd been reading about how this teacher got their students so interested in writing that many of them had gone into career fields pertaining to writing. The book repeated one main idea over and over again. Pay attention to your students interests and model assignments around that.

A maniacal glint, that would have scared most of the students if they were paying attention, entered Mr. Lancer's eye as he came up with a brilliant idea. "Class, I have caught four people in this class listening to music when they are supposed to be paying attention." The class squirmed, each student knowing how many times they had broken that rule themselves, and Star hastily snuck the headphones out of her ears. "While I could battle you to ignore your music, I think I have a better solution. As it is often said, if you can't beat 'em then join 'em." Now the class was confused. "Instead of the personal narrative I was going to have you do, I have a new assignment. I want each of you to choose a song off of your favorite playlist, and write a paper about how the lyrics relate to you." The class found this assignment really interesting, even Danny was paying attention. "The lyrics could relate to a specific time in your lives, a situation you've been in, or seen. The song could also just represent an emotion you've felt. There's only one rule. You have to write at least one page."

Paulina interrupted, "Ooh, wouldn't it be so cool if we read the song choices out loud."

Star, Dash, and Kwan immediately agreed. Star went as far as to say, "Yeah, and then we could all choose one essay to be read outloud."

"While I normally discourage interruptions while I'm talking I must commend you girls for your idea. I agree we should read the most interesting song choice aloud." Mr. Lancer said making the two popular girls smile with pride.

Mr. Lancer looked at the clock and said, "Okay to save some time for reading afterwards we'll have to keep this short. You have 35 minutes to write, and you can begin now." The class, except Tucker Foley, scrambled to get out pencils and paper. Tucker was already typing on his PDA when the rest of the class started. The rest of the class was quick to follow his example.

Danny for once was really happy with an assignment. Sam and Tucker had worked together to create a playlist of songs that fit him, and over time Danny had tweaked it adding songs here and there his friends missed. Now there was a good thirty songs, and while some fit him better than others there was something he could identify with in each. He didn't have a lot of time to be picky about song choice though, so he just decided to use the first song he thought of. Danny was writing as quickly as he could, and he still went over the time limit just barely, but he finished.

Now that Danny was done with his paper he was really worried about Mr. Lancer reading it. It was really tied in with his secret, and if Lancer put a little thought into it he might be able to learn Danny's secret. "At least I don't have to worry about him reading it outloud." Danny thought. It was true there was almost no possibility for the class to choose his paper to read, after all he was just freak Fenton, and the most popularity he held was being Dash's favorite punching bag.

"All right you've all turned in your papers, so let's see what you chose." Mr. Lancer said. Danny was getting more nervous by the second, he should have picked something else. "Nathan chose Paparazzi by Lady Gaga," Mr. Lancer raised an eyebrow at that, and most of the class laughed knowing Nathan was talking about being Valerie's Paparazzi. "Kwan chose Round and Round by Imagine Dragons." Danny grew more nervous as he thought of his stupid essay, and was having difficulty paying attention. He missed the next two people Mr. Lancer called. Then Mr. Lancer said, "Paulina wrote about Knock Em Out by Lily Allen. Star did Supermodel by Jill Sobule. Valerie chose Fighter by Christina Aguilera." Danny missed the next person because he was silently laughing at how perfect Valerie's song choice was. "Dashiel chose The Lazy Song by Bruno Mars." Mr. Lancer frowned at Dash's song choice while the A-listers gushed that his song choice was like so awesome. "Tucker chose,"Mr. Lancer's eyebrows rose and he chuckled, "Rich Girl - Gwen Stefani." All of the class laughed at Tucker's song choice. Danny laughed hardest having seen Tucker's dreams of being rich during the Nocturn incident. "Daniel chose It's time by Imagine Dragons." Mr. Lancer moved on, but almost none of the class caught the next few because they were all thinking about how Danny's song didn't fit him at all. Dash, who loved that song, was insulted that Danny would even write about it. "And Samantha chose Little Boxes by walk off the Earth." Mr. Lancer finished reading. "Those were some interesting choices. I'm very interested in reading them, but right now you are choosing which one to read. We only have a few minutes left, so choose fast."

Before anyone else could say anything Dash chose for them. "I want to hear Fenton's." Dash said it in such a tone that made it clear that anyone who argued would regret it. Even Paulina, who didn't care at all about what Danny wrote didn't say anything. When no one spoke Danny started panicking even more, and Mr. Lancer started reading.

 _It's Time by Imagine Dragons_

 _Danny Fenton_

 _I'm just a scrawny kid who gets beat up because I can't stand by and watch others take the same. I've gone through a thousand battles. I go in weak, but I come out victorious, and then I'm stronger for the next battle. I take each hit like each breath. I've done it a million times and I'll do it a million more._

 _The only thing I do more than fight is lie. Nearly every sentence out my mouth, when I'm not speaking to the three people who know me, is a lie, but I don't feel guilty for lying. It's my only selfish action. I've sacrificed more than anyone will ever know. I don't mind sacrifice. I'd give anything to survive and continue to be who I am. I go through my life helping to the best of my abilities, and sometimes my own wants get in the way of that, so I cut them out. I'd rather be bullied than see another in my position. Besides that's who I am, the scrawny kid who gets bullied._

 _Sometimes, when I think of all I've been through, and who I am, I realise how alone I am. There are people who share some of my characteristics, but they are rare, and none of them are very similar to me. There are two people like me physically, but one of them is a complete fruitloop. He's crazy, evil, selfish, and manipulative. The other person is probably more like me than anyone else in the world, but she's young and naive. Valerie, weather she knows it or not, is similar in her activities and her dedication. She too makes sacrifices to fight, but our reasoning is very different. Her activity is completely selfish, and she makes sacrifices for revenge. She is an amazing person, but her hatred blinds her. Sam and Tucker are similar to me socially. They are both outcasts from all but a small group, and they lie with me, but their lies are selfless, and they are still mostly innocent. I'm not crazy, evil, or selfish, and I hate to manipulate people. I'm the most responsible person I know, and I stopped being niave a long time ago. I fight for the protection of others and my own survival, and though I have plenty of reason I don't try and get revenge. I'm a lying outcast, and I'm not innocent._

 _I'm different than other people. I go into action, strengthened from previous battles, fighting my way forward towards a more peaceful place. It's never over, and the loop of battles, lies, learning, and battle again is always present with me, but I won't change it. I will stay here where I am for eternity if that's what it takes. Some people want to change me, but I won't let them. I will never be anything more or less than that scrawny kid taking punches. With each punch I know I get stronger, but I'm still the same person, and I always will be._

 _Once upon a time I did betray myself. I let myself become something else, and other people paid the price. I was given a second chance, and set back on the path I've always walked, and always will walk. I won't give up, give in, or hold back, because that's who I am. You don't understand that I'll always be who I am, because I promised never to change._

 _I'm just a scrawny kid who gets beat up because I won't let others get hurt for me. I've gone through at least a thousand battles and I will go through more, because everyday I survive I'm stronger, and everyday there is a new fight to win. It's who I was, who I am, and who I always will be. You don't understand that I can't change who I am._

Once Mr. Lancer was done reading no one thought that Dash should have chosen someone else. In fact no one thought of Dash at all. The only person anyone had on their mind was Danny. The paper talked about Danny getting into fights, but they were fights to help people? Some people thought that the fights was maybe a reference to Dash bullying Danny. It was a little known fact that Danny was Dash's favorite because Danny always got in the way when Dash tried to beat up other kids, and eventually Dash just gave up bullying other kids entirely. That still didn't explain the level of dedication Danny had towards protecting people, or how Danny was protecting people.

So much of the essay just didn't make sense. There was the line about Danny betraying himself, and becoming something, why didn't he say someone, who he didn't want to be. It almost sounded like he hurt someone, but that couldn't be true Danny was practically a pacifist, or so they thought. The entire paper revolved around Danny not changing who he is, but it was just now that the class was realising they didn't know anything about Danny.

People knew who Danny's parents were. They knew his friends and bullies. People knew who his sister was. No one knew anything about Danny beyond his habit of sleeping through class, or skipping in the middle of class, and they were just now starting to think that maybe they should pay more attention. Besides Sam and Tucker there was one person who had gotten to know Danny, and she thinking really hard about everything she knew about the boy.

The student's thoughts were interrupted by Valerie. She suddenly stood from her seat and spun to face Danny. On her face was a look between betrayal and horror. "No! You can't be?" Valerie yelled at the small raven haired boy. Valerie didn't wait for a response the guilty look she got from Danny was more than enough. She didn't stop to pick up her stuff on the way to the door.

"Wait, Val!" Danny stood up to go after her but Sam and Tucker stopped him.

"Danny she needs time." Tucker said with an expression of worry. He knew Valerie wouldn't take this well.

Sam was worried, but only for what Valerie could do to Danny. "You also should grab both your and Val's stuff. You know the places she'll go, it's only a matter of finding her." Sam looked around at all the student's surrounding them before switching to Esperanto and quietly saying, " _Also I think one of us should watch Vlad's mansion, and one of us should watch your place. Just in case she decides your more ghost than human._ "

"Lord of the flies! Daniel what is all this about?" Mr. Lancer exclaimed. "Your paper made no sense to any of us except for apparently Valerie who just ran from the room! Care to explain?"

Danny winced and shook his head no. "Um, I like my privacy." At that moment the bell signalling the end of school rang, and Danny grabbed his and Valerie's stuff, and he was first out the door. Who knew he could move so fast?

 _AN: I know, I know, cheese galore. I did warn you. My plans for this story ended to chapters ago, so everything past that is written straight from my mind unedited and unplanned. I've been working on a few others (The hostage situation DP FF amongst them) planning them out, but it's going to take a while to get to those and in the mean time I'm going to write whatever pops into my head down in this story._

 _So now that I'm done with the almost apology, on to the actually notes. I really like reading the Lancer Essay fan fics. I've written a few that never got posted, and this was just one that did. At this point in writing the story I was kind of working on stacking the events against Danny's careful reputation. It seemed like a good place to put an essay, and an essay sounded fun._

 _As for the songs I chose for the others. I didn't but much thought into it. If I had Tucker might have written about the song "Hey Brother", but I still like "Rich Girl" for him. Sam's song is perfect for her, if you don't know the song look it up it's perfect. Valerie song is also pretty perfect, but I can't take credit for that choice I found it in another fan fic._

 _Basically guys this fan fiction isn't serious. I've written fan fictions I were, and I'm currently writing more that are. This one is not one of those, so keep that in mind and I hope you enjoy the fan fic._

 _R &R,_

 _Mostly Human_

 _PS. I finally found a username I'm happy with, so this one is here to stay._


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

Team Phantom was on a mission. Tucker was watching Vlad's Mansion for any sign of Val. Sam was doing the same for the temporary GIW headquarters in town, and Jazz was stationed at Fenton Works. Danny, in ghost form, was flying at mach one from place to place, and running out of places, trying to hunt down the huntress. Danny mentally crossed the Nasty Burger off his list and that left one spot. If Valerie wasn't there he didn't know where she'd be.

With a flight speed of 200 mph it only took Danny a minute to get there from the Nasty Burger. His frenzied haste brought him to the abandoned concrete building. It was the old Axion Building, the one that Cujo destroyed, losing Damian Grey his job. Danny quickly looked around, but he didn't see Valerie. He sighed in defeat and lowered himself to the ground and sat on a chunk of rubble. "Hey guys." Danny said into the Fenton Phone on his ear. "I checked everywhere. If she's even in Amity I don't know where she is."

A muffled voice could just be heard answering. "Her dad was home, so she'll be back at some point." Tucker reassured his ghostly friend.

Sam was now speaking. "I don't trust her. You have to keep searching Danny. There has to be someplace you missed."

Danny sighed tired of Sam being so suspicious of Val. Sure she was hunting him, but she thought he had ruined her life, and more to the point that all ghosts were evil. "Trust me I looked everywhere. I want to talk to her just as much as you guys do. Maybe I could finally convince her that it really was an accident, or if my luck holds i could at least gauge how much time I have to hide before the GIW are knocking on the door to arrest me for existing."

"They can't legally arrest you by the way. It's against the law to experiment on humans." Jazz said knowledgeably.

"Yeah the only problem is I wouldn't be seen as human." Danny rolled his eyes the sarcasm clear in his voice. Before anyone could answer Danny said, "I'm going on patrol. Maybe I'll spot her there." With that Danny muted the mic on his Fenton Phone and turned to face the way he'd come.

What Danny was not expecting was Valerie in her Red Huntress suit, without the mask, to be standing right behind him. Danny yelped in shock and jumped back falling into an immediate defensive position. He stayed like that for a couple of seconds, prepared to dodge any shot, but it never came. Valerie was standing there silently with a ecto-pistol at her hip, but it wasn't raised like she was going to shoot him. It seemed more like a warning, that if he tried anything she was prepared. Danny dropped his defensive stance, but kept up his guard. Just because he believed in the good in people didn't mean he was stupid.

Finally Valerie spoke, "Hello, Phantom."

"I don't know what to think of that greeting." Danny replied honestly.

Valerie tilted her head just slightly in curiosity. "What do you mean?"

"It's an improvement from, Spook, but a downgrade from, Danny." He shrugged.

"You really are Phantom then." Valerie concluded in a defeated tone.

Danny couldn't hold back the sarcasm. "My names are Fenton and Phantom. The only thing that changes is my hair and eyes. You already know halfas exist, and you still have to ask?" Valerie glared and Danny grimaced and rubbed the back of his neck, "Yeah that was uncalled for. Sorry."

Valerie's glare lessened, but it didn't go away. "That's not what I want an apology for."

"You mean you're actually going to listen?" Danny was shocked.

"I haven't shot you yet have I?" Valerie rolled her eyes.

"Oh, uh, yeah." Danny rubbed the back of his neck again, then he sat back down on the rock. If Valerie took the chance to shoot him then he'd just deal with another burn. "I was really scared when I first got my powers. I kept phasing through things, and turning parts of myself invisible on accident. I wasn't even very strong yet." Danny started to explain. "I had been a ghost for about three months when Cujo came through. I captured him multiple times and put him back in the Ghost Zone, but somehow he managed to always get back out. Every time he escaped the Ghost Zone Cujo would immediately make a run for this place." Danny gestured to the ruins next to him. "I wasn't experienced, and I was only able to stop him when I learned what his obsession was."

"What does any of this have to do with why you destroyed Axion Labs and lost my dad his job?" Valerie hissed impatiently.

"Cujo wanted his old squeaky toy." Danny answered.

"Huh?" Valerie's anger was somewhat dulled by her confusion.

"The security system before your dad's was a lot simpler. They had guard dogs, and when your dad installed his state of the art system he made those dogs obsolete." Danny said. Valerie didn't like where this was headed. "The dogs were bred and trained for violence, so Axion put them down. Cujo was just a puppy when they put him down, so he isn't prone to violence, but he was old enough that he can be violent. Most the time though he's just a sweet little puppy looking for someone to play with him."

"That sweet little puppy is the size of a monster truck and he destroyed my life!" Valerie yelled.

"No!" Danny yelled back surprising Valerie who raised her gun on instinct. Danny backed down and Valerie hesitantly lowered her weapon before Danny continued. "I'm sorry, but Cujo is just a puppy who didn't know any better. It was just a series of unfortunate events, but if you really need someone to blame, if you need someone to take your anger out on then choose me." Danny stared into Valerie's eyes with a serious expression. "It was my fault. I'm the town hero, and I didn't save you. If you want to shoot somebody, then shoot me." Danny held out his arms in invitation.

It was unnerving to Valerie to see Danny Fenton, even though he was in Phantom form she couldn't unsee what she now knew, standing before her accepting responsibility for ruining her life and inviting her to shoot him if she wanted. If he was still just a ghost she wouldn't have hesitated, but he was human to.

"What's the problem Val?" Danny said calmly. "Do you not trust me in this form?" Suddenly a blinding white light formed a ring around his waist, just like that girl Danielle Phantom, and turned him back human. "Is this form better? Now that I'm human am I worthy of your trust?" Danny's voice stayed completely calm, but there was an underlying tone of accusation and hurt.

Valerie holstered her gun. She just couldn't shoot Danny no matter what he'd done. In a tired voice she said, "I just don't understand you."

"What about me?" Danny prodded.

"I believe you about Axion, but what about the mayor, and the robberies. How can you call yourself a hero after all of that stuff?" Valerie accused.

Danny looked down at rock he was playing with with his feet as he said. "I never kidnapped the mayor. A ghost that was overshadowing the mayor kidnapped me, and the whole thing with the robberies wasn't my idea. There was this circus rolling through town, Circus Gothica, and the ringleader had a staff that could control ghosts. He made me do horrible things, including robberies. I'm just glad he never managed to make me murder anyone." Danny shuddered remembering Sam falling off the train.

Valerie was silent for a while, and eventually Danny wondered if she was even still there. When he looked up he was shocked to see her crying. "Valerie, what's wrong!?" Danny jumped to his feet and took a step closer to comfort her, but stopped himself before he reached her.

The huntress in front of him managed to choke out, "Oh god, I shot you!" Her words tumbled out in a mess. "Y-you were innocent. All this time you were telling the truth. I was going to torture you! Oh god! I'm so sorry, Danny." By the end her voice was cracking as she sobbed.

Danny couldn't stand to see her so broken up, so he pulled her into a hug. "I forgive you, Val. I'm only worried that you might not be able to forgive me." He said to her quietly as soon as her sobs were under some semblance of control.

Valerie pushed Danny away so that she could look at his face. "What do you mean, 'forgive you', you didn't do anything?" She uttered in disbelief.

"Yes I did. I lied to you, everyday for years." Danny expressed his guilt.

"But I was shooting at you, of course you would lie. That's no reason for guilt." Valerie insisted.

Danny knew Valerie could be stubborn so he didn't argue, but he didn't give in either. "We'll just agree to disagree there."

Valerie chuckled and wiped away the remaining tears. At seeing the black streak of eye makeup on her hand she said, "Wow, I'm a mess right now."

Danny laughed at her vanity. "You girls are so weird about your makeup?"

Valerie punched him in the arm and said, "Shut up, Fenton?" then laughed with him.

"So does this mean you're done hunting me?" Danny asked sheepishly.

Valerie answered back just as nervous, "I was actually hoping you'd train me?"

"What?" Danny was dumbfounded here was the most prideful girl he knew asking for him to train her.

"You heard me." Valerie said her pride hurt enough for asking once.

"I mean, of course." Danny corrected himself, "It's just, why?"

Valerie refused to look Danny in the eyes as she said, "I've known you were holding back against me since we worked together to free Danielle. I saw you fight Plasmius and you were better than me, and being a ghost you obviously know more. You said that mut isn't actually bad, when I thought he was, so maybe I'm wrong about more." Valerie stopped rambling and looked at Danny. "Look, I just don't want to keep making mistakes, and after all the hell I put you through I want to help you in any way I can."

Danny smiled widely and simply said, "Then welcome to Team Phantom, Red."

"Team Phantom?" Valerie asked.

"Me, Sam, Tuck, and Jazz. They, and now you, are the only people who know. Besides the ghosts and halfas of course, they all know." Danny explained.

Valerie smiled gratefully. "Thanks, Danny."

After that Danny told Val to go home, he'd see her at school tomorrow, and he turned back on his Fenton Phone mic and relayed the conversation to the rest of the team. It took a while to convince Sam to give Valerie a chance, but after Danny practically begged she reluctantly gave in, to which Tucker snarked, "Lovebirds." The comment prompted a long list of threats from Sam and Danny, while Jazz just laughed. The conversation wrapped up and Danny did a quick patrol, only finding the Ecto Pusses and the Box Ghost, before he phased into his room and went to bed leaving his homework unfinished once again.

… **.**

The next day was weird. It started out normally enough, with a ghost attack, but when Valerie came to take care of the ghost, she actually she and Danny both flew down to the school and ran to their first class late. Valerie and Danny split up for their next class, which gave Danny some time to focus on other things, for instance how his paper seemed to be a hot topic of debate in the school this morning.

Now not only were people paying attention to him for surviving the hostage situation, for telling the story of Phantom saving the school, and for running when Dash tried to strip him, but now somehow everyone knew of his mysterious paper. In the halls Danny heard people muttering about Danny's fighting. They were all starting to wonder just who Danny was. Someone had correctly spread a rumor that he was into astrology, but there didn't seem to be any other information about him. Danny had worked very hard to keep people from finding any interest in him for his high school career, and now he was the center of attention, much to his disdain.

Lunch was the first time the trio and Valerie were all in the same place at the same time, and Valerie made the decision to join the trio. At first the meeting had been a little awkward. Sam didn't trust Valerie at all, and she made a point to place herself between Danny and the huntress. Tucker really wanted to trust Valerie, but he too was a little wary, and it showed even though he tried to hide it. Things were better though when Valerie apologized to Sam and Tucker for being so blind and hurting their friend. Tucker lost most of his nervousness around Val, though she could tell he wasn't completely trusting yet, because he hadn't hit on her. Sam grudgingly accepted the apology and stopped watching Valerie's every move, but she still wasn't very friendly, not that anyone expected her to be.

Lunch was only a brief reprieve and then it was right back into the halls where rumors and gossip ran rampant. Danny was honestly surprised no one had come asking questions about any of the rumors yet. Not that he wasn't grateful for it. It was one of the few rare times Danny was grateful for his loser status, because it put people off of talking to him. The nerds, who wouldn't lose anything by talking to him, were afraid for a different reason. Everytime they interacted with Danny he was completely polite and nice, but if they directed a question towards him he always somehow flipped the conversation around to a different person or topic without ever answering. The nerds wouldn't even know he did it until he was long gone. It was little things like that that showed how smart Danny truly was. Even if his grades didn't show it, Danny was just as smart, if not smarter than Jazz.

Danny's intelligence was just another thing people underestimated about Danny, and though it irritated his friends Danny prefered to be under estimated. Enemies were easier to beat that way, and it was easier to keep his secrets. People thought he was below average intelligence then they wouldn't think he had the capacity for complex secrets. If people thought he was weak and easily scared then they wouldn't even contemplate Danny fighting ghosts, or being anywhere near ghost. People were starting to pay him more attention now though, and even though they still didn't think he was anything more than he pretended to be Danny was having a harder time hiding in plain sight.

Valerie was a big help with the ghosts at least. When his ghost sense went off in fourth period Danny had looked at Valerie and she'd mouthed, "I'll get it." In return Danny made sure to take detailed notes in class until she got back, and when she returned he passed her the notes for which she was very grateful.

School finally ended and Team Phantom decided to start training for their newest member, so it was off to Fenton Works. On the way Danny's ghost sense went off, but it was just the box ghost. Seeing the perfect opportunity Danny stopped Valerie from attacking the pathetic specter and called his parents. Maddie and Jack were more than happy to come racing over with ecto-weapons ablazing, leaving the teens free run of the house.

It was the first time that Valerie had ever been in Fenton Works, and she looked like a kid in a candy shop looking around at all the weapons. Danny walked over to change the ecto filter on the portal when Valerie asked, "What is that?" She was pointing to the portal.

"Oh that's the Ghost portal. It leads to the Ghost Zone." Danny answered and Valeries jaw dropped to the floor.

"That's not the only thing it is. It's Danny's origin story." Tucker quipped and then got slugged in the arm by Sam for his comment. "What it's true?" Tucker griped. Sam just glared.

"Um what's he talking about?" Valerie asked, "And why did Sam hit him this time?"

"She just doesn't like to be reminded of how I got my powers." Danny said.

"How did you get your powers?" Valerie immediately asked causing Danny to wince and Sam's glare to turn to her.

"I don't like to be reminded either." Danny said, but then he sighed and answered her question. "When my parents built the portal it didn't work. They plugged it in and besides a few sparks nothing happened." Danny got a far off look, remembering the day. "They were so devastated. The next day I told Sam and Tucker about it, and they wanted to come see it for themselves, even if it didn't work. So after school we went down into the lab, which we weren't supposed to do." Sam looked down at the floor guiltily, knowing the next part, and Danny said, "You know I don't blame you Sam. I'm glad about my powers."

Sam smiled at Danny trying to console her again. "I know, but that doesn't mean I'll ever feel better about it."

Danny smiled at Sam sadly and Valerie asked, "What is Sam guilty about?"

Danny turned back to Valerie and continued the story. "I wanted to leave, because I was nervous that we would get caught, but then Sam convinced me to stay long enough to at least look inside the portal." Suddenly Valerie got a foreboding chill and Danny's voice became more grim. "I put on my white hazmat suit, and I stepped into the portal. Inside the portal was pitch black, so I placed my hand on the wall to balance myself, but the wall gave way. I looked over just in time to see that I'd placed my hand on the 'on' button before I was engulfed in green and white swirling light." Danny paused and shuddered then he skipped a head. "When I came out of the portal I looked like this." Danny changed to Phantom. "I was so panicked that I was a ghost, that I was dead, that I changed back to human on instinct. The rest is history."

For a moment everyone was silent lost in their own thoughts, but then Valerie said, "I still don't get it."

"Get what?" Danny asked.

"Why don't you like being reminded of it? Why does Sam feel guilty?" Valerie questioned.

Finally Sam burst, "Because I killed my best friend!" Sam spoke rapidly. "Danny didn't tell you everything. He skipped a part. I watched him walk into that portal, then he placed his hand on the side and pressed the button. I just saw his form overtaken by this bright mass of swirling green light before he started screaming at the top of his lungs." Valerie winced and Sam was scowling at the memory. "Then he just stopped, and I knew he was dead. Then imagine my horror when the ghost of Danny stumbles out of the portal and starts to pass out. I tried to catch him, but he just fell through my arms. I was so panicked I couldn't even cry. After a few seconds he woke back up and we showed him a mirror." Sam's voice was softer now. "He changed back after he saw himself in the mirror and claimed he couldn't be a ghost because his parents were ghost hunters." Sam stopped finished with the story. "That's how it really happened. That's why Danny doesn't like to be reminded, because he doesn't like remembering that pain. That's why I hate being reminded, because I convinced Danny to walk into the machine that half-killed him." After that Sam ran up the stairs and out of the lab.

Danny started to run after Sam, but then he remembered Valerie. He turned to Tucker and said, "Teach her about what humans don't know about ghosts. I'm going after Sam." With that Danny flew up the stairs after his friend.

Valerie watched Sam and Danny race up the stairs after her stupid prying. Tucker seemed to guess her thought. "Don't feel bad about it Val. You didn't know." Then he muttered to himself, "And maybe they'll finally admit their feelings."

Valerie smiled at the tech geek. "Thanks, Tuck." Then she smiled, "They really are clueless huh?"

Tucker sighed in exasperation, "You have no idea." Valerie chuckled a little, glad for a lighter topic, before Tucker turned the topic back to ghosts. "So I'm supposed to be teaching you the basics for a new member."

"And what are those? It's not like I'm an amature here." Valerie seemed skeptical.

"True, but you are terribly misinformed." Seeing Valerie's glare he added, "Not that you're alone. All of humanity is." Her glare turned to a look of confusion and Tucker explained, "You see the current theory about ghosts is that they are ectoplasmic manifestations of excess negative human emotion after death, and besides the ectoplasmic part that theory is basically wrong."

"So what are ghosts then?" Valerie asked slowly.

"First off there are more than one way a ghost is formed. The first isn't all that far from the current theory. Excess human emotion finds it's way into the ghost zone through natural portals, and ectoplasm is attracted to these emotions. After a while these masses of ectoplasm and emotion condense into a type of ghost we like to call a blob. Those ghosts have little to no intellect and mostly float around the ghost zone harmlessly, though there are a few exceptions like the ecto pusses." Tucker lectured, "The second type of ghost is the most common, and most misunderstood. When a human or animal dies with unfinished business they can come back as a ghost that forms an obsession around their unfinished business. For instance Cujo left behind his squeaky toy, and wasn't finished guarding his master."

Valerie winced at the mention of the puppy, and asked a question to help her avoid making the same mistakes. "So if Cujo isn't evil, does than mean there are other ghosts that aren't evil?"

Tucker smiled and nodded. "For instance Dora, Princess Dorthea to you, is obsessed with going to a party. In life her brother kept her locked away from everyone else and all she wanted was to go to one of the balls that often took place in the palace. After the death of both siblings her brother, Argon, continued to control her and hold the kingdom in the middle ages, but Sam convinced Dora to fight back against her brother and Dora has been a wonderful ally since."

"And I thought all ghosts were evil, but I guess there are exceptions to that rule." Valerie said.

"Actually the malevolent ones are the exceptions. Nothing about death makes a person evil, it just amplifies their emotions some, so if you have an evil or obsessive person they become more so in death." Tucker corrected. "That's only two types of ghosts though. Now we are moving on to the third." Tucker paused for a second thinking about how best to explain the third type. "The final type of ghost is the most rare. I've cataloged thirty two ghosts we know personally, and at least twenty more we aren't acquainted with, but only two of those ghosts fits this type. The third type of ghost is created when a large mass of people become emotional over an imagined entity, most often a god. Their emotion gathers in the ghost zone, but instead of forming little blobs more and more ectoplasm is gathered around a complex idea. Eventually the complex idea forms a sentient, intelligent ghost that is modeled after the humans belief. These ghosts are also the most powerful ghosts, and are often at least level 8."

"Who did you meet that fit the description?" Valerie asked curious about these rare powerful ghosts

"One was Odin the norse god, king of the gods." Tucker said this so matter-of-factly that Valerie couldn't help but believe him, despite it being unbelievable. "The second is Clockwork. He's the master of all time, and he's been worshiped under many names over the centuries. Kronos, the sandman, father time, they're all just named people have given Clockwork." Valerie's eyes popped out of her head as she thought over the power that one being had. The longer she thought about it the more horrified she became. Tucker saw her fear and said. "Don't worry he's an ally of ours. Danny kind of looks up to him as a teacher. Clockwork doesn't meddle in the time stream too much, but he stops the world ending events." Valerie nodded slowly in understanding, but she was obviously still stunned at all the information. Tucker knew it was a lot to take in so he offered to answer any and all questions.

Danny left the responsibility of teaching the basics to Valerie to Tucker as he raced up the stairs after Sam. He checked outside, and when he didn't see her there he knew she was still in the house. The first floor was empty, and it didn't take long for Danny to find Sam when he got upstairs.

Sam was sitting on his bed with her back propped up against the wall and her arms around her knees. Her head rested on her knees and her hair hung down blocking her face from view. Silently, as only a halfa could be, Danny climbed up only his own bed and placed himself next to his friend. They both sat in a comfortable silence for a while until Sam said, "Running like that was kind of stupid, huh?"

"Nothing you ever do is stupid, Sam." Danny said sincerely.

Sam looked up to give Danny a disbelieving look, and Danny frowned and passionately defended his claim. "I'm serious, Sam. Sometimes you can overreact, but that's just because you're passionate about the things you care about. I admire you so much, because you really care, and you're never unreasonable. In fact you're one of the smartest most beautiful people I know." Danny would have continued, but he was cut off by Sam.

Sam gave Danny a sarcastic look, questioning his statement that she was never stupid. She knew for a fact she'd done many stupid things, but Danny almost seemed to take her silent question as a challenge. He started telling her that how caring and smart she was, not noticing the blush that was starting to take over her face. Then he told her she was beautiful and she reacted instinctively. Before either of them knew what was happening she was kissing him.

She was kissing him. For a moment Danny's brain was stunned, but he got it working soon enough and he kissed her back. It was just a small kiss, but it felt like the most important moment of both of their lives. Danny couldn't believe it Sam kissed him! They parted leaving Danny feeling giddy and more than a little afraid. It was so small and yet as he sat there with his face just inches from Sam's he found himself breathless. He looked in her amethyst eyes as she looked in his ice blue and they both knew. Sam knew she loved Danny, and Danny knew he loved her. Danny leaned forward at the same moment as Sam and they found themselves kissing again.

Danny moved one hand to Sam's face, and Sam opened her mouth slightly inviting him to deepen the kiss, which he happily did. Somehow Sam found herself on top of Danny with both her hands in his hair, and Danny's other arm snaked it's way around her waist. When they finally parted it was only because they were forced to breath.

Breathlessly they both smiled and Danny said in a tone that betrayed his nervousness, "You kissed me."

"You kissed me back." Sam returned.

"Yeah, but I love you." Danny said without thinking. Then he realised what he said, and for a moment he froze afraid of how she would react.

His fear was in vain, which Sam proved by saying, "But I love you too." The simple words seemed to have a profound effect on the teenage boy. His expression of fear changed to one of unbridled glee. Danny's entire being seemed to glow with euphoria and Sam laughed when she realised he was literally glowing. "I'd better get off." Sam said as she scooted off his lap and bed.

Danny pouted and asked why, making Sam laugh more. "You're so happy you're glowing."

"So what?" Danny asked and pulled her back down next to him.

Sam kissed him lightly and giggled as his glow grew stronger. "I meant that literally." Sam words broke Danny out of his happy glaze, and he looked down to see Sam wasn't joking. He was glowing almost as much as he did in ghost form, and the discovery made him groan.

"That is so cliche." Danny griped. His embarrassment about glowing only made him dim a little, but when Sam laughed at his pouting again he became just as bright as ever.

Closing his eyes in concentration Danny focused on his ghostly core and brought his aura back under control. He grinned in triumph, but it was short lived as Sam just said, "Come on, Glowstick. We should go back downstairs. After all we only have so long to train Val before your parents get home. Danny grumbled, but allowed himself to be pulled off the bed and out of his room. He couldn't stop smiling, and despite being a goth neither could Sam. They both arrived in the lab smiling and holding hands.

Tucker glanced up at them and back to Valerie, explaining who the different allies were, when he stopped mid sentence and looked back at Sam and Danny. For a second he stood gaping. Even though he'd been calling Sam and Danny Lovebirds for years, and had several bets going that they would be together before the end of highschool, there had still been part of him that thought he'd never see the day they finally admitted their feelings. Then he broke out of his stupor and yelled, "Finally!" as he shot his hands into the air.

It was confusing to Valerie when Tucker stopped talking, but then he shot his hands into the air and yelled, "Finally!", and she looked behind her to see Sam and Danny hand in hand blushing. Then the two looked at each other and their grins grew wider. Danny was so happy, he began to once again glow, making Sam giggle. "Um," Valerie pointed at Danny, "Why are you glowing?"

"What!?" Danny looked down at himself and said, "Aww man." Then he shut his eyes in concentration, and the glowing stopped.

Still laughing Sam said, "Danny's just glowing with happiness."

"Really?" Tucker laughed, "He does that now?" Danny just groaned making all of his friends laugh more. "I'm so happy!" Tucker said, "Oh, and congratulations on making him glow, Sam." With that sentence Danny knew it would take a very long time to live this down, but at the moment he didn't really care.

 _AN: Hi again! I got a lot of really good feedback on the last chapter, and now I've continued with the next one. I hope you enjoyed reading this. I had fun writing it. Until next time R &R._


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

Spectra had never been easier to defeat than she was that morning. She tried all her usual, "you're a freak in both worlds", thing, but it just couldn't touch his good mood. It didn't matter what she said, Sam still loved him. Because Spectra was finished so quickly Danny not only got to school on time for once, but he was able to walk with Sam and Tucker. Upon seeing Danny's happy expression Sam had asked, "Well someone's in a good mood. Did the ghosts decide to give you a break or something."

Danny laughed and shook his head, "Nope I fought Skulker, Boxy, Jonny 13, then Kitty, Boxy again, and finally Spectra and her pet."

"Whoa. You were way busy last night." Sam said, "So then what's the reason for the huge grin?" She really shouldn't have been shocked, but she was when Danny leaned down and kissed her.

"You." He answered simply, making Sam blush.

"Eww, Lovebird love!" Tucker said, "That was so sweet I think it gave me diabetes from here."

Sam punched him in the arm and both her and Danny said, "Shut up, Tuck." at the same time.

"Dear god why did I want this?" Tucker shook his head.

Walking hand in hand Sam and Danny followed Tucker over to their lockers. They were lucky to all have lockers near each other, but Sam and Danny were forced to let go of each other all the same. All the students in the hall started whispering and pointing when Sam kissed Danny before she reluctantly let go of his hand to walk to her locker. Sam was only a few lockers away from Danny, so she heard the girl loud and clear when Paulina said, "Hi, Danny."

Danny looked almost as surprised as the rest of the students in the hallway when Paulina spoke to him. He almost felt the urge to look over his shoulder and make sure she wasn't talking to someone else, but he was the only Danny in town, besides Phantom. "Um, hi, Paulina." Danny replied awkwardly. He saw Sam seething from behind Paulina and flashed her a smile to reassure her. It did the trick, but just barely. At least Sam didn't look ready to fly tackle the cheerleader anymore. Paulina was just standing there expectantly. "Was there something you needed?" Danny asked.

Everyone in the hallway watched stunned as Danny just calmly spoke to Paulina, but that was nothing compared to what they witnessed next. Paulina leaned up against the locker next to Danny's and then turned to face him so she'd placed herself between Danny and his locker. "You're quite the mystery around here, you know." She spoke in a seductive tone that would have, and did have, every other boy drooling. Danny surprised everyone around by keeping his cool. Even Sam was impressed.

"There has been more conversations about me this week than normal." Danny admitted, looking down at the voluptuous latina just a foot away. "That doesn't explain why you're here." In truth Danny knew exactly why she was here, and he knew it wouldn't work. That knowledge almost made him smirk, almost. He managed to keep his face blank.

Paulina seemed shocked that Danny wasn't drooling like everyone else. Dash got more of her than anyone, and even he would be on his knees begging. Using more charisma than she'd had to in a long time Paulina corrected her expression and continued. "Well it's come to my attention that I don't know you that well." She trailed off leaving the conversation wide open, but Danny decided to have some fun with her for Sam's sake.

"So, what?" Paulina was using all of her mental capacity, which was just barely enough, to not gape like her friend, Star, next to her.

She regained herself just enough to say, "Well I was thinking we could go out sometime and get to know each other better." When she said the word "better" she placed a hand on his chest and gasped at the muscles she could feel under the cotton.

Danny quickly grabbed her hand and pushed it back as he took a step back. "I'm sorry Paulina, but I have a girlfriend who I love, and you're not her. My girl's not only beautiful, but she's smart, caring, independent, and always there for me. So while I wish you well, I'm not going out with you." By the end Sam was grinning like a cheshire cat, and Paulina finally lost her composer and was left frozen in shock in front of Danny's locker. Danny was actually forced to remind her where she was. "Um, Paulina, I need to get to that locker." Danny pointed to his locker she was still leaning on.

"Oh, um, right." The poor girl frowned, then she shook her head clear as if coming out of a daze, and left, but not before looking back at Danny once more. As soon as Paulina was around the corner Sam leapt on to Danny and kissed him hard on the mouth while all the girls in the hallway cheered.

"Oh my god, Danny! Did you see her face!?" Sam said happier than anyone had ever seen the goth. Danny nodded and Sam said, "I love you, you know."

Danny smiled and forced himself to not glow in a crowd of people as he said, "Not as much as I love you." Danny grabbed the book he was looking for, shut his locker, and kissed Sam again, but then when the strangers in the hallway started congratulating them they decided it was time to get to class.

The classroom soon became filled, and with it came rumors, rumors of Danny. There was still the occasional person talking about the other three events surrounding Danny, but it seemed that in the three minutes between Danny turning down Paulina, and when people started to enter class, rumor had spread that Paulina was shut down hard by the mysterious geek. Danny was growing more and more embarrassed as no one in the room was bothering to be subtle about their staring and whispering. He was really going to have to watch his step until the rumors died down. If he wasn't careful someone would see him transform. Danny was never so happy to start a class in his life.

Unbelievably the next class was even worse. Every single person in the halls and in the classroom after were talking about him, and sadly he didn't share this class with Sam. There was however Tucker, but there was also Paulina. The girl was casting nervous glances everywhere as she heard her name followed by laughter. Tucker wasn't much help, because he was trying to "console Paulina" aka get her while she's low. Once again Danny was grateful for the class to start, but this time the talking didn't stop, it just became whispers. By the time the lunch bell rang Danny had missed almost everything the teacher said, including the assignment which Tucker had to remind him of.

Danny was just glad it was lunch time. He sat at his usual table with Sam and Tucker. Valerie was sitting by the A-listers. The A-listers were pretending to console Paulina while trying to get the full juicy story of how Danny turned her down, and about halfway through lunch they wore her down. Paulina started going into the dramatic tale of how she was so pretty and every guy in the hall was drooling and Geeky Fenton said she wasn't pretty enough or smart enough for him. It wasn't technically what he said, but it was definitely implied. As soon as Danny heard the words come out Paulina's mouth he was standing. "What are you doing?" Tucker asked, but someone else answered the question for him.

"FENTON!" the word rang out across the cafeteria and everyone knew Dash was livid. Danny didn't wait to answer Tucker's question, he just ran. Unfortunately Dash wasn't alone. Working as a team Dash chased Danny straight into the waiting arms of Kwan. It was an ambush, and Danny just barely stopped himself from ducking out of Kwan's reach when Kwan grabbed at him. Once Dash was close enough Kwan shoved Danny against the wall of the school and cornered him with the help of Dash, the Dash hissed, "No one messes with Paulina, Fenton!" For some reason Dash actually using Danny's name was more intimidating than the usual names of Fenturd and Fentina, and Danny was trying to work his best I'm terrified act. Dash picked Danny up by the collar of his shirt and pinned him against the wall. "Did you hear me!?" Dash yelled. Everyone in the cafeteria could clearly see what was happening, and some of them noticed Danny didn't look so small compared to Dash anymore, in fact Danny looked almost like he would be just as tall if he were standing up straight. Danny was busy looked over Dash's shoulder watching saw Valerie approaching. He quickly caught her eye and shook his head, hoping she got the message before he answered Dash.

"Y-yeah." Danny squirmed while he mentally thought of how much he hated faking stutters. They always sounded so fake to his ears. Valerie was still coming, so Danny caught Sam's eye and nodded her towards the approaching huntress. Sam caught the message better than Valerie, but she was blocked by the crowds and couldn't reach her in time.

"Leave him alone Dash." Valerie called out. Kwan backed away from the disagreeing A-listers, looking for any excuse not to have to beat up yet another undeserving kid, and staying out of this fight looked like the perfect opportunity.

Kwan correctly predicted a fight. Dash yelled at Valerie, "You heard what this loser did to Paulina. Are you just going to let him get away with that?" Dash challenged her making it clear she was choosing a side.

She didn't even hesitate when she said, "It doesn't matter what he did he doesn't deserve to be beaten up."

"Kwan!" Dash barked, "Take her A-list membership."

Kwan did as he told apologizing to Valerie all the while, and then he stepped back again. Dash turned his attention back to Danny and pulled his fist back to punch him in the gut when Valerie grabbed his arm. Dash shoved her off and said, "You keep getting in the way and you'll get hurt." The room was deathly silent as Valerie ignored the warning and grabbed his arm again. "That's it!" Dash roared as he shoved Valerie back and moved to punch her, but it didn't connect, at least not with the right person.

Everyone was shocked when instead of hitting Valerie in the face, like Dash was aiming, he hit Danny's chest. Danny pretended to bend over gasping for breath, but in reality he was just signalling Sam to grab Val. Sam got the message, and this time got through the crowd and dragged the newest team member away. No one noticed Val's kidnapping, because they were all looking at Danny like he was crazy for jumping in front of a hit coming from Dash. It got worse when Danny said, "Leave her out of it Dash. I'm the one who insulted little miss perfect." He made sure to keep breathing heavily while he said it. The reminder worked just as Danny planned when Dash turned his anger to the slightly smaller boy.

Dash started with a knee to Danny's stomach, and followed with a few punches in the same general vicinity. Dash had never been this brutal, and Danny began to worry how he would fake passing out. Dash then slammed Danny against the locker and Danny decided this was a good time to start. He lowered his eyelids like he was going to sleep, and then Dash sent one last punch into his side and let Danny drop.

Danny pretended to pass out, but really he was listening as hard as he could to the conversations around him. People were disturbed. They'd never seen Dash so violent. Sure there was occasionally a nerd given a swirly, or thrown in a locker. Dash had even gone so far as to hang Danny from the flagpole, but besides one punch here or there, Dash wasn't violent like he'd just been to Danny. There were whispers across the entire room as Dash stocked out of the room to go who knows where.

The people who weren't talking about Dash were wondering if they should get the nurse, or an ambulance. That was Danny's cue to "wake up", so he groaned, and all conversation stopped. Sam rushed to him and yelled, "Danny!". She didn't need to fake the worry in her tone, but Danny still had to pretend to be damaged. He grabbed his head and shushed Sam. Then Sam threatened the nurse's office and Danny protested.

"Sam, I'm fine." He sent her a smile and pretended to wince while standing up. "It's just a few bruises. No big deal." Then Danny looked to Valerie, who was looking horrified at Danny's ruffed up form, "Are you okay?" Danny asked the black girl.

Valerie's expression turned disbelieving. "You're asking if I'm okay!? Of course I'm okay! All he did was push me." Danny was getting irritated that Valerie and Sam thought he was really hurt. It was making the acting job harder. Tucker was the only one who saw through Danny's act, and he seemed clueless on how to help.

Finally Danny just said, "Could I talk to you guys in private?" He nodded to all of the team.

"Yeah, sure." Sam and Valerie agreed, and Tucker made a show of helping Danny move away from the cafeteria. Danny winced for real when he heard his name bubble across everyone's lips before he was even out of the room. Danny glanced back once he was around the corner to check that no one was looking and then sighed in relief when he realised he was finally alone with his team.

Danny stood up straight and pulled everyone into the closest empty classroom. "Are you insane?" He finally asked Valerie.

"What?" Valerie was completely caught off guard by the 180 of Danny's mood.

"Didn't you see me shake my head?" Valerie nodded and Danny said, "That was me telling you not to get involved."

"So what? I was just supposed to let him beat you up!?" Valerie yelled in her defence.

"Yes." Danny affirmed, "He would have threatened me and thrown in a punch for good measure, and that would be it, and he would be satisfied."

"Why do you let him beat you up?" Sam growled hating seeing it.

Danny sighed, "Because he can't."

"What do you mean he can't? I saw him. Everyone saw him." Sam argued.

"I thought you would know by know what a good actor I am. Sam do you know how difficult it is to pretend to be in pain while timing when and how you move to make it seem like you're giving way under someone's punch." Danny raised his voice for the first time. "If I stood still and let Dash punch me he'd break his hand before I noticed he'd done anything."

Sam scoffed, "You're strong Danny, but even I doubt you wouldn't notice anything."

Tucker commented, "Actually I watched carefully. Danny was faking everything in that room." Tucker turned to his best friend, "Remember two days ago my comment on how you used to be such a terrible liar?" Tucker asked rhetorically. "Well now you're so good at it it scares me sometimes. You even convinced Sam."

Danny rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah, um, I'm sorry about scaring you like that by the way." He said to Sam. "I just couldn't give you any hints because too many people were watching."

Sam sighed and hugged Danny, "I'm just glad you're okay."

"I'm fine, but my reputation isn't." Danny scowled.

"What do you mean?" Valerie asked, but the bell cut off Danny's answer.

"Listen we can continue this conversation later, but right now we have to get to class." Danny said, but then his ghost sense went off and he corrected himself, "You have to get to class." Danny looked at Valerie and said, "I'll handle this one." Then he turned to Tucker who was in his next class. "Tell the teacher I'm in the nurse's office because of an accident in the lunch room."

"Won't me lying be suspicious?" Tucker asked.

Danny ran his hands through his hair. "It won't change anything. People are already suspicious. Now go, before you're late." Danny said before he transformed into his ghost form and flew up through the ceiling. The rest of Team Phantom reluctantly followed Danny's lead, after all there were appearances to keep.

The bell for the end of the day was never more welcomed by any of the members of Team Phantom. They all wanted to hear why Danny let Dash beat him up all the time, and Danny just wanted to get away from the gossip. The team separated to get to their lockers, and then met outside the school. Sam suggested they go to her place for privacy since Tucker's house had paper thin walls, and Danny's house was too risky when his parents were home. Even though Sam's house was the farthest away Danny and Tucker knew it was the best option, and they both thanked her for trusting Valerie enough to let her come. Sam shrugged it off, and Valerie was just confused, until she saw Sam's house, or more accurately Sam's mansion.

"You live here!?" Valerie shouted.

"Hey not so loud. I don't want to alert mom that I'm home. She and Dad are probably gone by now, but just in case, shhh." Sam instructed.

Valerie said in a quieter tone, "How and why?"

Sam sighed and just motioned everyone to follow, which they did, as she opened the door with her key and quietly made her way up the stairs to her bedroom. Valerie's head was swiveling left and right as she walked trying to wrap her brain around the fact that Sam might be the richest person in Amity besides Vlad Masters. Finally everyone arrived in Sam's room, and Sam closed the door behind them.

Sam's room was very simple. There was a large king sized four poster bed with sheer burgundy curtains, and a black comforter. The floor was a light wood, mostly covered by a giant black rug with a spiderweb design, and the walls and ceiling were also black. Across from the bed against the other wall there was a dark ebony wood desk. The third and final wall was taken up by bookshelves filled with obscure and dark topics, interrupted intermittently by widows covered in red blackout curtains that hung from floor to ceiling. The last touch to finish the room was a large red sofa and two red beanbag chairs.

Valerie was still openly gaping at the room when Sam, Tucker, and Danny sat down in their usual spots. Danny on the sofa with Sam next to him, and Tucker in a beanbag chair. "Um are you coming?" Sam asked braking Valerie from her stupor.

"Oh, yeah." Valerie muttered and promptly plopped down into the remaining chair. "I can't believe you're rich, Sam." Valerie said.

"Yup." Sam popped the p. "That's me the unknown eiress. I just didn't want fake friends." Sam explained, but then she turned things back to Danny. "I wasn't who was supposed to be explaining things though."

Both girls looked at Danny expectantly while Tucker just played on his PDA. Danny ran his hands through his hair and said, "Okay I wanted to talk to you guys, because we're going to have to be very careful for a little while at school."

"Why?" Valerie said, "What's there to be careful about?"  
"My secret. Keeping it boils down to one thing, and that's my reputation." Danny started to explain.

"I don't get it." Valerie admitted.

Sam picked up the explanation, "You know Danny's secret now. The only physical differences between his human form and his ghostly form are his hair and eyes."

"Yeah, but no one would ever guess Danny's Phantom." Valerie said.

"Exactly." Danny said, "Because everyone thinks I'm weak, easily scared, cowardly, and below average intelligence wise. They never even think of Phantom and Fenton in the same sentence."

Sam growled and Tucker said, "Agreed."

"Um, what did I miss?" Danny pointed at Sam and Tucker.

Tucker looked up to say, "We hate how this town treats you."

"But we need them to treat me that way remember." Danny said.

"Why?" Valerie pointed out, "They're right. You deserve better than what you get. You could have better, so why don't you?"

Danny sighed, "Because if people thought better of me they could easily make the connection between my two halves." Danny's eyes briefly flashed in irritation as he said, "But now my reputation is in danger."

Sam ran her fingers through Danny's hair to calm him down. It worked and he started to faintly glow, but the glow went away as Tucker snorted, "Yeah right. You're wimpy, cowardly, geeky Fenton. How could your reputation be in danger?"

"Oh I don't know Tucker, maybe it's because I've been the topic of conversation for everyone in Casper High for four days." Danny's voice dripped with sarcasm.

"It can't have been that much?" Tucker said it more like a question and Valerie started counting on her fingers.

"Well first he was cocky to those gunmen and got himself shot, and then Dash confronted him and we figured out he wasn't shot, but Dash had tried to strip Danny." Tucker snorted at that, but he didn't comment because of Danny's glare. "Then the next day there was that essay. Then today there was Paulina and Dash's overreaction." Valerie finished counting. "Yeah, that's a lot of fuel."

"You forgot that I took a punch for you. If it was just Dash responding more violently than usual then it wouldn't be quite as bad." Danny griped.

"Okay, so I was wrong, and we need to play our parts. That shouldn't be too hard though, dude." Tusker said, "Plus today's Friday, so we have two days for the rumors to died down before we even enter the school. What's the worst that could happen?"

Danny and Sam groaned in unison and Sam said, "You jinxed us."

"I'm not Bad Luck Tuck!" Tucker yelled, and Valerie giggled. Once again Sam and Tucker dissolved into petty argument, and this time Danny let them be. He was getting tired, after all he'd only gotten about four hours of sleep last night, and now that he wasn't watching his every move his exhaustion was starting to catch up with him.

Unable to hold it back anymore Danny yawned. The noise stopped Sam and Tucker's fight. "How long did you sleep last night Danny?" Sam asked.

"Yeah, didn't you say you beat something like seven ghosts last night." Tucker added.

Danny shrugged, "Just about. I was able to sleep for four hours though."

"In a row?" Sam raised an eyebrow daring him to lie, but he just shook his head and she knew he was telling the truth. "You should have said something sooner."

"I wanted to warn you guys about the increasing rumors." Danny shook his head.

Sam smiled sadly at her boyfriend and said, "I was going to suggest we go to the Nasty Burger, but how about we go downstairs to the theater and you can take my bed, or the couch down there."

"I'll take the c-couch." Danny stuttered as he yawned again. The day had been more than trying enough that the halfa was asleep as soon as his head hit the sofa. It was a good start to their weekend.

 _AN: Hi. :) I rewrote this chapter a few times, so sorry about any grammar errors. I thought Danny being untouchable to Spectra was a fun way to show how happy he was, not as fun as glowing, but nothing will ever beat that stupid idea. The Paulina flirting thing was done in the actual show, but then Danny got over Paulina, and I wanted to see his reaction after he knew he loved Sam. From that idea the entire chapter basically wrote itself. I think I've read a fan fiction before that mentioned Danny having to move his body to mimic the way a normal person's would give way under a punch, but I wanted to add it anyway. I think Danny really would have to do that to keep up his reputation, because I have personal experience that proves it. My uncle was playing baseball, and he and a team mate jumped to catch a ball at the same time. They collided like Edward and Emmet in the Baseball scene in Twilight, and the guy that hit my uncle broke his arm in two places and a rib. The guy was in a body cast for months, and my uncle had a little bruise on his elbow for a week. Now granted my uncle was made of nothing but muscle and bone, but I think that is proof enough that Danny would need to learn to dodge a punch to stop his human attackers from hurting themselves. Anyway, hope you enjoyed the chapter and R &R. _


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

School sucks when you're an unpopular geek, but as Danny discovered over the course of a few days it sucked worse to be a popular geek. When the they entered the school on Monday everyone was watching his, Sam, and Tucker's every move. Valerie was watched to, but not to the extent of the other three. Danny, Sam, and Tucker found themselves cornered by various people in the student body many of which blatantly tried to get more information about Danny and his friends. It wasn't long before everyone knew just how good the trio was at dodging questions and changing topics. Sam was just rude and refused to answer questions, and people quickly stopped asking her. Tucker loved the attention, and lead people on, but people soon learned they never got any information from him, so they stopped going to him too. Danny wasn't so lucky. He was even more evasive than the others, but people found his ability to be completely polite while he undetectably steered the conversation exactly the way he wanted it to go. It took people longer to figure out what he was doing, but when they did it only seemed to draw more attention to him. The trio's evasion of questions was gaining the loser trio a new title. Though they were still called the loser trio by the A-listers almost everyone else started calling them the secret trio.

There were a few good things that come from the week though. Sam bought Danny to meet the crystal gallery owner, Michael Clark. Danny brought a set of thumb sized dragons that greatly resembled Princess Dora and her brother Prince Argon. He also brought two fist sized sculptures; one was a motorcycle with a 13 on the side, and the other was a blood blossom flower. Mr. Clark was amazed by the quality of the work, and was only more impressed when he learned they weren't crystal. He almost refused to believe Danny when he said it wasn't crystal, because of the way it glittered like crystal. Danny explained that it was a special type of glass that only he knew how to make. "It's super durable, almost as hard as diamond, but it's just glass." Danny said to the amazement of Mr. Clark.

The meeting finished quickly and Michael Clark agreed to show thirty pieces in his shop. The small ones would be between $15 and $30. The medium ones, the fist sized ones, would go from $50 to $100. The largest, there were only five of those, were listed up to $500. Danny made 65% on everything sold in the first batch, but if Clark sold Danny's pieces in under a month then he promised to give Danny 75% of the profit for the next batch. Michael Clark also warned Danny that if he couldn't sell the pieces in under four months that he wouldn't continue to sell them in his store. Danny agreed that was fair and the next day he brought in thirty pieces that he listed under the name James Knight.

Tucker had helped create the new identity James Knight when Danielle first came back. They knew they needed money to take care of her, and Danny wanted to open a bank account that wouldn't be linked back to him directly. James was Danny's middle name, and Knight was proposed by Sam as a shortened version of Nightingale which used to be part of the name Fenton back in the 1600s. Tucker got to work, and a month later James Knight was born, and the ID had come in handy more times than the trio could count.

While he waited for his sculptures to sell Danny was still broke, so Sam ended up buying Danielle food and new shoes that week. Then friday came around and Danny took Sam, Tucker, and Valerie to the Far Frozen to see Dani, or Elle to Danny. Dani was ecstatic to see her pseudo brother and their friends, but the presence of Valerie made her more happy once she learned that Valerie was now a part of Team Phantom. Dani spent the majority of the time showing off all the things she was learning to Valerie and catching up with her first ever human friend outside of Team Phantom that is. The two girls gabbed away hours while Danny, Sam, and Tucker caught up with various members of the tribe. Sam was collaborating on a project in the Far Frozen Medical Labs with a yeti named Comet. Sam and her were trying to figure out why Danielle was a girl if she was a clone. Tucker was working with a mechanic named Nix. They were working on improved transportation developed from the Specter Speeder the trio had crashed into the Far Frozen.

Frostbite was in the process of teaching Danny Latin. Danny was already fluent in four languages. Having learned Esperanto to speak with Wulf learning Spanish after that was easy because it was similar to Esperanto and he needed the high school credits. He also picked up a decent amount of ancient Greek from walking around Pandora's acropolis. Learning a new language was proving to be easy for Danny, and he was almost fluent already. There were many languages spoken by ghosts, but most ghosts knew multiple languages. Centuries ago the different languages began to create a communication barrier between ghosts, and Pariah Dark dictated that every ghost was required to learn Latin which he said was the official language of the dead. It was said to be the only good thing Pariah ever did during his reign as king, because now ghosts could always communicate, because they all learned Latin.

Time in the Far Frozen flew by and before they knew it Tucker's PDA alarm went off telling them it was time to go home. Danielle was anything but happy that they had to leave, but she understood that they had lives to keep up on Earth. Her knowledge didn't stop her from stalling them for an extra half hour.

… **.**

The rumors floating around Danny were still going strong by the end of the week, but at least they weren't the only topic of conversation anymore. Danny walked through the hallways normally and he only heard half the people start talking about him when he walked around a corner. It was still too much for the halfa, and if he didn't get some privacy back soon he felt he would go insane. If there was one thing that consoled him it was that he was just about to enter the last class of the week, and he wouldn't have to deal with this for another two days.

Danny gritted his teeth as he walked into Mr. Lancer's class room with Sam and Tucker. Tucker sat next to Valerie in front of Danny, and Sam sat behind Valerie next to Danny. As classmates came in at least half the class was talking about something related to the secret trio and Valerie. "Relax, Danny." Sam whispered to him. "It's the last class of the week and then we go home." Danny took a deep breath and stopped gritting his teeth, but his muscles were still tense.

He was saved for the millionth time that week by the arrival of the teacher. Even the boredom of English class was better than the constant chatter about the trio. The drone of Mr. Lancer's voice calmed Danny over the course of the class, and eventually he found himself almost relaxed enough to fall asleep in class, but then the bell rang for the end of class and before anyone could stand Mr. Lancer called, "Wait. I have an announcement. You can go in just a moment."

The class groaned in unison, but the few that had stood sat back down. "I have held you all back in class to admit something that's been withheld from you until now." Mr. Lancer caught the attention of some of his more attentive students. Sam and Valerie were paying attention, but Danny and Tucker were still daydreaming. "Monday there will be a field trip." That sentence caught the attention of the rest of the students.

"Where are we going?" Dash asked immediately. Danny seriously wondered if the jock had any impulse control. Somehow he doubted it.

Mr. Lancer didn't indulge the blond boy, "That, Mr. Baxter, is a secret." He addressed the whole class, "Last week your parents received a permission form in the mail with all the details for this field trip. They were asked not to tell you the location of the trip and they mailed back their signature. I've got the list of students who will be allowed to come, so if I call you, you will be meeting with the others in this classroom during first period next Monday." Mr. Lancer paused to make sure everyone understood, and when it was clear that they did he began to read. "Star Andrews, Dashiel Baxter, Michael Conner, Daniel Fenton," At the sound of his name Danny slumped in his seat, he didn't want to be taken from Amity for long. "Tucker Foley," At least Tucker was coming, Danny thought. "Lester Johnston, Samantha Manson," Danny smiled that Sam and Tuck were coming. "Kwan Moretell, and Paulina Sanchez." Mr. Lancer finished reading his list and looked around the room. The students who weren't called all seemed to be disappointed, and, with the exception of Danny, the students who were called seemed happy, and everyone seemed curious.

"Alright for those of you who weren't called, your parents didn't sign the slip. You will have a normal Monday, except there will be no English at the end of the day." Mr. Lancer addressed everyone else, "For those of you I did call, I want you to come to this classroom instead of the regular one when the first period bell rings. This trip is long, so I want everyone to pack a lunch. Also it's important that you wear clothes and shoes you are comfortable walking in. That means no heels ladies." The teachers looked pointedly at Paulina and Star. "Any questions?" Almost every hand raised. "That aren't about the location of the trip." The hands all went down and Lancer called, "Alright. Class dismissed."

There was a flurry of movement and in under a minute the class emptied out into the halls. The school was mostly empty by now except for a few groups of people who were slowly walking to the door with their friends. Danny and Sam walked out hand in hand with Valerie on Sam's right, and Tucker on Danny's left. The end of the class had reestablished the tension in Danny, and it was clearly visible to his friends. Trying to ease Danny's tension Tucker unknowingly brought up the topic that was making Danny worried. "So where do you think that we're going?" Tucker asked and Sam hit him. "Oww! What was that for!?" No one answered so Tuck turned to Valerie, "You see how much these guys abuse me. No appreciation for the Tech Master!"

"Tech Master?" Sam asked with a raised eyebrow as Valerie giggled.

Tucker looked back at Sam daring her to deny it. "You saying I'm not?"

"No, no, keep it." Sam raised her hands in surrender and Danny finally cracked a smile.

Tucker shot his fist into the air as they left the school grounds. "Yes! I did it! I brought Danny out of a funk! Me, Tucker Foley, TF as in Too Fine."

Danny chuckled lightly at his friend's antics, "I'm not in a funk." Danny denied.

Valerie smirked and said, "What do you call it then?"

Danny thought for a moment and then said, "Worried discontent."

"So a funk then." Valerie concluded, earning a "Hey!" from Danny and laughter from Sam and Tuck.

"Seriously though, what's up?" Tucker asked.

Danny lead them to the only secluded spot in Amity Park's park and then explained, "I'm just a little worried about the field trip."

Valerie said, "If this is just about leaving Amity unprotected, I'm not going, so I'll protect the place while you're gone."

Danny smile gratefully to Valerie, but the effect was somewhat ruined by his frown. "I'm really grateful for that, but that's not all that has me worried."

"Well spit it out ghost boy!" Sam said.

"Firstly we're going to be gone all day." Danny said and Sam and Tucker nodded in agreement.

"Hold up." Valerie said, "What makes you say that?"

Danny, Sam, and Tucker shared a look only they understood. Tucker's look said, "It's going to take forever to always explain everything." Danny's look said, "Come on guys. Her deduction skills will improve with time." Sam's look said, "If you say so, Danny. I'm with, Tucker." The conversation was conveyed in a few short seconds but it was long enough to make Val impatient. Finally Danny said, "Mr. Lancer told us to bring a lunch, comfortable clothes and shoes, and most importantly he said those of you who are staying behind won't have English on Monday. English is the last period, so it sounds like he expects to leave during first period, and not come back until after the last period."

"Oh." Once Danny explained it it made her feel a little stupid. It was so obvious, and yet she'd missed it. It made her wonder what else she missed. Then she snorted, she obviously wasn't as perceptive as she thought, she didn't even see Danny was Phantom until the essay.

"Don't worry Val. Your way better than I was when I started." Tucker said, "And it really is kind of like you're just starting. Before you were told all ghosts are evil, go get them, but now you know better. Now you're doing more than just going out and shooting anything that's ectoplasmic."

It wasn't exactly complimentary, but it made Valerie feel better all the same. It made her feel like a useful member of the team. "Thanks Tucker."

"So as I was saying," Danny got back into his explanation, "We're going to be gone all day. That means all the ghosts that come through while we're gone are on Val and Jazz, but that's not all I'm worried about. I know I can trust the town with Val and Jazz for that long."

"So what's the problem?" Sam asked.

"Well it's mostly a, gut feeling, at this point, but I don't think we're going somewhere safe." Danny rubbed the back of his neck.

"A gut feeling?" Sam questioned cocking her head to the side. She knew Danny had more experience than the rest of them, but she needed more than a gut feeling to be worried. "What type of feeling?"

Danny shuffled his feet and said, "It's kind of like the feeling I had before we went on that camping trip to Lake Erie, but worse, and Walker kidnapped the entire class on that trip." Danny ran a hand through his hair and said, "I don't know exactly why I don't like this trip."

"You can't ignore the feeling though." Sam said, "And I don't think you should. Despite being beside you for all the years you've been a halfa you have more experience than any of us. You might just be being paranoid, but it's not likely."

Danny smiled at his girlfriend's confidence. "It doesn't help that I can't think of where we could possibly be going."

"That's sort of the point of the location being secret isn't it?" Tucker snorted.

Danny smirked lightly, "Doesn't mean I didn't try and figure out the possible locations."

"Okay Sherlock, where are we going then?" Tucker snarked.

"Well I know we're likely going to be gone all day. There is only one location in Amity Park that would take that long, and I don't think anyone, even in this town, is crazy enough to take a field trip of high school students there." Danny's eyes were glazed over as he listed the possibilities. "The length of the trip could be a result of travel time, but there are very few attractions that a school would drive us to. Then there's the last thing that cuts out possibility that's not local. Mr. Lancer wanted to make the location secret because it's interesting. There are a few museums and other places we could drive to, but none of them are interesting enough."

Danny's reasoning left the others deep in thought. None of them knew the area like Danny, but that was because Vlad had forced him to fly from Amity to Wisconsin one more time than was required to convince him to learn the area. "Okay I admit I can't think of anywhere they could take us for a full day, but why is it so worrying?" Valerie asked, and this time she wasn't alone in her confusion.

Sam added, "And what place could we go in Amity, the one no one is crazy enough to try?"

Danny said two words to answer Sam's question and it made her go pale. "Ghost Zone."

"You don't think- No one is that crazy." Sam said.

"What? You think you're going to the Ghost Zone?" Valerie scoffed, "There's no way. Even Amity isn't that stupid."

Danny shrugged and said, "That's my first inclination too, but, it's the only place that fits. Unless there is somewhere that I haven't thought of." Danny looked at Val and said, "I really really hope you're right, because if it's the alternative I don't even want to contemplate the kind of danger the class is putting themselves in, not to mention my secret."

Valerie's eyes glittered with mirth, but she sobered some when she realised only Tucker agreed with her. Sam and Danny were both worried about the possibility of going to the ghost zone for a class field trip. "Okay, look guys. It's just a simple job of hoping for the best and preparing for the worst." Everyone watched her explain her plan. "Pack like your going to the ghost zone. Bring all the regular weapons and some extra thermoses and you're good. Just realize it's probably just a trip to one of the places Danny marked off for being too boring, or some place he didn't think of at all. I'll take care of Amity no matter how long you're gone, and everything will be fine."

Danny and Sam relaxed and Tucker sent her a grateful look. "Valerie's right. There's nothing to worry about."

Danny nodded seriously. "I'd still feel better if we plan it out."

Tucker rolled his eyes but said, "I don't have a problem with that as long as you buy me a Nasty Burger to make up for it."

Danny agreed and Team Phantom headed to Fenton Works to reconvene with Jazz. Jazz thought of many things they never would have, which is why she was always asked to help with the plans. She pointed out that they needed to take extra food, water, and first aid supplies. She also said if they took all the Fenton Phones they could create a better communication and reaction time for the large group. She suggested making Dash in charge of the A-list, that way he felt he had power, making Mikey, who was the bravest of the nerds, in charge of the nerds. Then the other Fenton Phones could go to Sam, Danny, Tucker, and the adults. Tucker cracked a joke about Danny ending up lost in the Ghost Zone, but Jazz assured him if worse came to worse she'd attach the Fenton Fisher to the Booohmerang and she'd follow it to Danny.

After the conversation Danny felt much better about the trip. Finding all the weapons and other supplies they wanted was easy, but it took over an hour to work out who was carrying what. Danny wanted to carry most the weight, since he had super strength, so he ended up with the water and most of the heavier weapons. Sam was carrying the rest of the weapons, and Tucker had the first aid and three boxes worth of dense granola bars. Once they were all packed Danny wanted to double check all the bags, but luckily for the rest of the team, who was tired of planning and packing, Danny's cell phone chose that moment to ring.

Danny told everyone to be quiet and he put it on speaker phone while he started to double check his bag. "Hello. Is this James Knight?" Mr. Michael Clark's voice sounded from the phone.

Danny stopped his check and put his full attention on the phone. "Yes this is James." He ignored the confused look Valerie and Jazz shot him. He forgot to tell Jazz about his other ID.

"James I'm so glad I got a hold of you." Mr. Clark said.

Danny looked a little wary after that sentence. "Well, I'm here, so what's up?" Danny asked.

"You'll never believe it. All your sculptures sold and I've already had a couple people ask if you do commissions." Mr. Clark said excitedly, "I've never seen crystal sell so fast. I'm thinking I need as many sculptures as you can give me, as soon as possible." Danny was shocked speechless. He had been worried that he might not sell within the four month time limit Mr. Clark set, but obviously that was wrong. "Hello are you there?" Michael Clark brought him back from his thoughts.

"Y-yeah. Sorry I'm just shocked. I had no idea they would do so well." Danny said.

"I don't blame you. I knew they'd sell, but not that well." Clark said.

"Right." Danny said getting back to business. "Ideally how many sculptures would you like me to bring, and I'm bringing them tomorrow."

"Well that's fast, I suppose to fill the shop for the rest of the month I'd like at least ninety. It may be too many for you to do right now, and I understand that, but you sold thirty in a week, so I want that many for each week." Clark explained.

"How about I bring over a round hundred?" Danny asked. "I have a bunch just laying around here."

"That's perfect, and you're bringing those tomorrow?" Mr. Clark asked.

"Yeah. I'm potentially leaving on Monday, and I'm not sure how long I'll be gone. It shouldn't be more than a week or two, but I'll be out of contact." Danny briefly explained before he went on, "Anyway I'll be there tomorrow then. When do you want me there?"

"That works. We open at 10, so if you could be here by 8 in the morning-" Mr. Clark faded out.

"I'll be there Mr. Clark." Danny said.

"I'll be here, but you should call me Michael. I have a feeling we're going to have a lot more business in the future." Michael finished. "Goodbye, James."

"See you, Michael." Danny said as he hung up.

By the time the phone call was done Jazz was filled to bursting with questions and they all came out at once. "Who was that? What was he talking about sculptures? Why'd he call you James? What store? Do you have another identity? Do you-" Danny finally covered her mouth to stop her endless questions.

"In order," Danny said, "That was Michael Clark. Sam suggested I sell my ice sculptures as glass in a crystal shop. I took her up on her advice and gave Michael thirty of them as a test run. I didn't want to give him the name Danny Fenton, so I used a fake identity I came up with to open a bank account. I used my middle name and a variation of Fenton. The store is Clark's Crystal in Amity Heights. Yes I have three identities Fenton, Phantom, and Knight." Danny paused then said, "To answer the next question I needed money to fund food and clothes for Elle."

Tucker, who was always interested in money asked, "So how much did you make?"

Danny's expression blanked and he said, "I don't know." Then he turned on his computer and said, "I'll look." He pulled up his account for James Knight and when he saw the money he made his jaw dropped.

Tucker watched his friend's expression and when Danny didn't tell him how much he made he got up to look himself. Then his jaw fell open and he squawked, "$1800!"

Jazz and Valerie followed the boys reactions, and even Sam looked mildly surprised. However Sam was very used to money and recovered quickly, "And just think you've only started. This is week one when your clientell base is nil and your pricing is as low as it will ever be. Congratulations on figuring out how to make your own fortune." Sam said it so nonchalantly that it broke Danny from his shock. He started laughing hysterically and the rest soon found themselves laughing with him simply because it was contagious. Danny finally gained a hold on himself and said, "Looks like I'm taking a trip to my personal storage space. Who's coming with?"

All of Team Phantom ended up in Jazz's car headed out to the edge of town. Danny lead them to an overgrown forest trail head and he spread his intangibility through all of them before flying them up the trail to a caved in cave. Danny pulled them all through the rock straight into the mountain, and on the other side all they could see was black. "Uhg I can't see a thing", Valerie complained.

Danny just smirked on lit up his hand with ecto energy. What the humans saw amazed them. Even Sam and Tucker hadn't been to the "warehouse" before. The cavern was massive and filled with twists and turns, yet it was dry. The cave would have been cool on it's own, but what made it truly beautiful was the massive amounts of crystal sculptures that littered the cavern floor. All of the sculptures ranged from the size of your thumb, to the size of a full grown person, and they were all beautiful.

"I had no idea." Jazz whispered teary eyed. "My brother's an artist."

Danny blushed green and said, "No I'm not. I've just got an ice core. All ice ghosts can make this type of stuff. Frostbite is way better-" he found himself pleasantly cut off by Sam's lips.

By the time they parted Danny was dazed, intoxicated with Sam, and it was only Sam's next sentence that brought him back to reality. "Shut up. You are an artist."

Danny blushed bright neon green in his ghost form, and he stubbornly said, "Nuh huh. Look." He held out his hand and his eyes flashed ice blue as a crystal began to shape in his hand. The process was fast, and if you blinked you could have missed it, but one moment Danny's hand was empty and the next there was a delicate ice chain with an ice pendant shaped like the Danny Phantom insignia.

"It's beautiful." Sam gushed in a very non goth way.

"I'm glad you like it. It's yours." Danny said as he smoothly clasped the chain around Sam's neck, making Sam blush almost as bad as Danny had just moments ago. "It's just a parlor trick for my kind of ghost." Danny explained. "You make these constructs to help practice form and detail when you're making ice in battle." To demonstrate Danny created a ice katana in under a second and then he sliced cleanly through a boulder near the cave entrance.

Valerie was slightly pale when she said, "I'm glad I'm on your team now."

Danny frowned seriously and said, "I'd never use that kind of power against a human, Val. Even if you knew my secret and were still my enemy, if you were about to tell the whole world my secret, I'd never kill anyone."

Jazz laughed and said, "Your hero complex is showing."

Danny lost his serious expression. "Shut up, Jazz!" He stuck out his tongue childishly and Jazz returned the gesture.

Valerie giggled at the sibling interaction and Sam said, "What are you, four?" Then she put the group back on track, "So how are you going to choose which ones to take, Danny?"

Danny shrugged looking around. "I was just going to grab them at random. I was thinking fifty small ones, thirty medium, and twenty large ones." Danny showed them what was a small versus medium and large, and they got to work. Each of the team chose ten small pieces, six medium, and four large, and when they were done Danny briefly left them in the dark to grab two duffel bags from the back of Jazz's car. Even a hundred sculptures was easy to fit in the two bags, and since they didn't have to worry about the sculptures braking, the job was done very quickly.

Sunday morning came quicker than Danny would have prefered. The Box Ghost woke him up at four and then Ember battled him for two hours before he could capture her in the thermos. By that time it was pointless to go back to sleep, because he needed to be to Clark's Crystals in an hour. It didn't take Danny the full hour to get ready and get to the shop. He arrived with plenty of time to spare, just one of the perks of being able to fly over two hundred miles per hour.

Danny entered the shop through the back door, seeing as the shop wasn't open yet, and set his duffle bags down on an empty table. "James, good to see you." Michael greeted Danny.

Danny turned to the shop keeper and replied, "You too, Michael. So where do you want these?" Danny waved a hand at the duffle bags and the shopkeeper's eyes widened.

"You brought them in duffle bags! Are you nuts!? They'll brake!" Michael half yelled as he lost his composure.

Danny chuckled and replied, "Um, no they won't." Danny opened up a bog and unloaded six perfectly fine sculptures. "See fine."

Michael was still breathing heavily, and Danny felt bad for giving the guy a minor heart attack, but Michael got over it and then he was amazed. "Jesus, you weren't joking when you said as durable as diamonds. I was afraid for a moment there."

Danny laughed, "Sorry for scaring you. I just didn't see a reason to pad something that wasn't going to break anyway."

"How durable are those things?" Michael contemplated aloud as he picked one up.

Danny shrugged, "I've never broken one."

Michael looked shocked, "Never!" Then he got a mischievous glint in his eye.

Danny raised an eyebrow, "What's with that look?"

Michael looked a little guilty at being caught. "I got the urge to chuck one at the floor as hard as I can to try and break it." He admitted sheepishly and Danny laughed.

"Go ahead, just be careful not to dent your floor." Danny encouraged, so Michael threw the piece in his hand straight down, and it bounced straight back up. Michael screeched and barely dodged in time as it went flying out towards a collection of crystal behind him.

"No!" Michael was sure he broke something, but when he turned around Danny was standing there with the small figure in his hand.

The sculpture was just a deer he size of a quarter and Danny said, "Never knew Bambi could be so destructive."

"Whoa. Nice reflexes, James." Michael complemented.

"It's nothing." Danny mumbled. "Any way where do you want this." Danny asked again.

"Oh, right." Michael got back on topic. "Just set them out on that table, and I wanted to ask you how you felt about raising your prices. I know it's only week two, so I wasn't thinking a ton, but I think raising the prices a little might help my stock last."

Danny started unpacking and replied, "That's fine. I don't think it's unreasonable, especially since you ran out of stock so fast. If you think it will help raise it however high you want."

"Let's look." Michael pulled out the pricing sheet. "I was selling yours for 15-30, 50-100, and 200-500, for small, medium, and large respectively. So how about 20-40, 70-150, and 300-700. Sound good?" Danny nodded and Michael wrote up the new pricing sheet.

Danny finished up packing the ecto ice sculptures and looked at the pricing sheet. "This says I get 75% of the profits?" Danny looked up confused. "I thought I only got 65%."

Michael smiled and raised an eyebrow, "I was switching you over to 75% if you sold in under a month, but I can always take it back."

"No, no. 75% is good." Danny quickly said.

"Thought so." Michael sighed and said, "I'd better get to work. The store opens soon, but thanks for bringing these in on such short notice."

"It's really no problem. I've been making these things for years, and I've amassed an unmanageable amount of sculptures. I'm glad I'm finally doing something with them." Danny admitted.

"Well I'm glad to sell them for you. You're making me a rich man." Michael laughed.

Danny left out the way he came in and ducked behind a tree to change to Phantom. As he flew back home with his empty duffle bags he was officially done with all of his responsibilities until the field trip tomorrow. A shiver ran up his spine that ended in a quiet gasp of visible cold air leaving Danny's mouth. He was done with _almost_ all responsibilities.

 _AN: Hey look an update before 10:00 pm for once. Enjoy :)_


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

Light flooded the large dark room, chasing away the shadows and causing the goth to hiss. "Sammikins, rise and shine." The pale girl could hear the smile in every word that left her mother's mouth. No one but her parents would be that chipper in the morning. Sam hid her face under her thick black comforter, but even with that the goth could sense the presence of light interrupting her slumber.

The already irritable teen heard a quiet noise that darkened her mood further. It was the creak of a wardrobe, the light clicking of hangers, and the rustle of fabric. It was a warning to Sam that her mother was going through her clothes again. Sam shot straight up in bed and shouted, "Get out!"

Pamela Manson held her hands up in surrender and said, "Alrighty grumpy pants. I just wanted to make sure you had time to get ready for school this morning." The pink clad mom quickly left after that and just barely made it out of the room before the pillow hit the door behind her.

Sam looked over at her bat shaped alarm clock and groaned. It was only 6:30. Sam didn't need to be up for another hour, but there was no point in going back to sleep now. She rolled her slim arms down towards her feet and curled her knees under her, stretching like a cat, before she crawled out of her massive bed. She walked to her wardrobe and hissed at it's contents. Dead center in the middle of all her dark attire was a horrible baby pink gown with a ruffled skirt and puffed sleeves. Sam shielded her eyes from the bright cloth as she tore the horrendous pink monstrosity from where her mother placed it. Reopening her eyes to see her regular wardrobe, just as she left it, soothed Sam almost enough to completely rid her of the want to burn the waste of cloth and money, almost.

Sam sighed as she grabbed a maroon t-shirt and a pair of black skinny jeans. Today was already turning out terrible and she didn't even know where the field trip was going yet. After slipping on her regular combat boots, spider backpack, and the new necklace Danny had made her Sam slipped out her open window. It only took a few seconds for the girl to climb down her wall to the ground below, and then she was free, if an hour early.

Sam's early arrival turned out to be a good thing. Danny had been woken up by ghosts again and was already sitting in front of her gate waiting when she got there. "Hey. How long have you been there?" Sam asked making Danny jump. Sam smirked at catching the halfa off guard. It wasn't something she could often do because of his enhanced hearing, but when he got too wrapped up in his thoughts she could sometimes still get him.

Danny smiled happily at his girlfriend. "Only a few minutes." Danny tilted his head to the side like a puppy, "Why are you up?"

Sam smiled at his cute look of confusion and flippantly stated, "My mother's sadistic." a scowl started to form on her face as she said, "You know that woman tried to sneak another dress into my closet this morning. It's like she expects me to somehow overlook the waste of space and money." Sam ranted, "How am I supposed to miss something so horrendous as a baby pink ball gown!?" Danny just chuckled and Sam prepared to tell him off for laughing at her when he leaned down and kissed her lightly on the lips. Her complaints died immediately and instead she said, "What was that for?"

"I wanted to." Danny said smiling happily. Sam couldn't help but return that smile. Danny was like the moon against the black night sky, Sam's only source of light to get her through until the Sun came out. Even with the morning Sam had had, she could feel her worries slip away in the presence of that smile.

Unconsciously Sam placed a hand on Danny's hip to balance herself as she leaned forward to meet his lips again, but she stopped short, much to Danny's displeasure, when she felt a wet warmth under her hand. She brought the hand up to her eyes and frowned at the sight of blood. "What?" Danny asked.

Sam rolled her eyes, "You're bleeding through your white shirt."

"What!?" Danny squawked and pulled out his shirt which was in fact turning red on his left side. "Aww man, I thought that healed all the way." Danny deflated.

Sam chuckled and said, "Let's just go up to my room. I have a spare shirt you can use."

"I could just grab one from home." Danny said, but he still picked up Sam and flew them through her window.

Sam walked into her closet and pulled out a medium, black, long sleeve, men's t-shirt."Here." She chucked it to Danny, who caught it with ease.

He raised an eyebrow and asked, "This is kind of perfect, but why do you have it?"

"It's my favorite nighty." Sam answered.

Danny found a blush rise to his face at the image of Sam in nothing but this and a pair of underwear. It took Sam snapping in front of his face to remind Danny what he was supposed to be doing. Danny wasted no more time stripping off his shirt to change, but then he was left with a bloody shirt he didn't know what to do with. "Umm." He looked to Sam for a solution.

Sam was fighting off her own blush at seeing Danny's toned chest. He was still slim, but there wasn't an inch of fat on him, and the scars spider webbing across his skin only made him look hotter in Sam's eyes. Danny's unspoken question broke her from her staring, and it took a second to filter through what he wanted. Sam got it eventually though and she chucked the shirt in the trash can. There was no point keeping it.

Danny finished pulling the black shirt on, and though Sam was unhappy to have his muscles covered, she had to admit he looked awesome in black. The shirt was also a little smaller than Danny normally bought for himself, so it clung to him a little closer than normal. His muscles weren't entirely visible, but it wasn't hanging off him either. Sam had a feeling Danny would be catching more attention than normal in this outfit. Sam shook her thoughts free and reminded Danny that they needed to go to school.

Hand in hand Danny and Sam met with Tucker and walked to school. Valerie wished them luck in the hall as she walked to her first period class. Danny started to tense up as they approached the classroom where the other field trip goers were waiting. Sam rubbed his back trying to calm him and said, "Relax. I don't think there is any possibility we're headed to the ghost zone."

"Why not?" Danny asked, he couldn't think of any new reasons that took the ghost zone out of the running.

"I'm going." Sam paused, but Tucker and Danny stared at her uncomprehensively so she sighed. "Think about it. My permission slip was signed. That means my parents approved of wherever we're going."

Tucker snorted as Danny said, "How did I not think of that?" Sam let out a silent breath of relief as almost all the tension left Danny's shoulders. He was hardly ever completely relaxed anymore, but at least now he wasn't extra stressed. "You're right Sam."

After that the secret trio felt much better about the coming field trip. Danny even found himself looking forward to his day off from his superhero duties. The halfa tried to squash the feeling, knowing he'd jinx himself, but no matter how hard he tried he couldn't think of a way for the trip to go wrong.

As they waited for Mr. Lancer and the rest of the class Sam and Tucker got into yet another argument about meat verses veggies and Danny felt himself relaxing further in the normalcy of it all. If Danny really thought about it things were actually going really well recently. Valerie knew his secret and was helping him. He and Sam finally admitted their feelings for each other. Danny had found a way to siphon off some of his sculptures, and he was making bucket loads of honest money without really working. All in all life was actually pretty good. The only down side was his up in popularity, but that would correct itself over time and was little more than an inconvenience at this point.

It had been a long time since Danny was in this good a mood, and he was curious, just like everyone else for once, where the field trip would take them. Mr. Lancer finally came in three minutes after the bell, apologizing, "Sorry for being late, class. I was just finalizing the last details for our trip." As the teacher spoke the chatter slowly dwindled and died, much to Mr. Lancer's satisfaction. "Now I'll take roll, and then I'll lead you to the busses." Just as promised, when roll call showed everyone to be present Mr. Lancer lined them up and lead them out the front door of the school to the bus stop.

The A-listers got in first and sat in the exact middle of the bus. Mickey, Nathan, and Lester were all nerds, and stuck together near the front where Mr. Lancer could protect them. The newly dubbed secret trio of course filed into the very back seats where they couldn't be overheard. Mr. Lancer once again counted all the students and then he told the bus driver they were ready.

The movement of the bus invoked greater enthusiasm, and therefore greater volume from the students. The noise in the bus became almost deafening to the halfa, though he was too used to the loud noise of school kids to care. Danny lightly smiled to Sam and kissed her on the cheek, and Tucker said, "I know I've been complaining about you two being clueless for years now, but get a room."

Sam stuck her tongue out at Tucker and Danny punched him in the arm. "You're just jealous." Sam said snottily and Tucker snorted.

"Jealous, of what?" He pointed to Danny's black shirt and said, "That Danny's slowly being converted to whatever dark religion you belong to. No thanks." Tuck relished in the blush he caused on both Danny and Sam's faces, and was even more smug when he successfully dodged a boot from Sam.

Sam turned to Danny to tell him to hold down their techno geek friend when she saw him frowning out the window. She heard him mutter almost too quietly to hear, "Please don't stop. Please don't stop. Just keep going." Sam tried to see what he saw, but Danny was blocking her from getting close enough to the window. As if to thwart him the bus slowed and pulled over to the curb.

Danny groaned and Sam finally climbed over his lap to see what he was so upset about, and once she got a good look she didn't blame him. In fact Sam felt exactly the same as her boyfriend, because they stopped at Fenton Works. Tucker saw the quick change in attitude in his friends, but he could sense it wasn't a good idea to ask about it and just moved seats to see where they stopped himself. When he did he cursed in a very not Tucker like fashion.

The stupidest teacher in the history of teachers loaded the class out onto the sidewalk and then he lead them to the front door of Fenton Works and rang the bell. The students didn't understand yet where they were going for a field trip, and were mostly confused as to why they had stopped at Fenton Works. The trio just accepted their fate heavily. There was only one reason to come to Fenton Works.

"Ghost!" The door ripped open so fast some people wondered how it wasn't ripped off it's hinges. Pour Mr. Lancer nearly had a heart attack as the business end of the ectoplasmic bazuca charged to fire. It was a testament to Lancer's fear that he didn't notice the man holding the gun, and Jack Fenton was over six feet tall, three feet wide, and dressed in a day glow orange rubber jump suit. Danny face-palmed.

A black gloved hand pushed the gun up, saving the teacher. "Now, honey, what did we talk about this morning." Maddie fenton spoke in an amused and accommodating tone. She was dressed in a teal jump suit to match her husband's.

Jack pouted as he recited, "Ghosts don't ring the doorbell, but Mads, they knocked."

"It doesn't change the fact that ghosts won't use the front door, sweety." Danny's mom informed the trigger happy giant before she turned back to the class that was nervously waiting on the door step. "Well why don't you guys come on in. There's lots to do today, and we've been waiting a long time to do it."

Jack regained his usual excitement as he bounded away to the lab. Maddie chuckled at his antics and waved the student's to follow her before she followed her husband. The student's walked through the entryway, the kitchen, and down the stairs to the basement lab. All except the trio were looking around at the experiments and the weapons with amazement, but the Fenton Ghost Portal by far held the most attention. It was wide open, letting the glowing green swirls bathe the nearby area in its unearthly light.

"Hello, students." Maddie grabbed everyone's attention. "You are here today to embark on a historical journey the first of its kind." She paused for dramatic effect and all the students, except Team Phantom leaned forward unconsciously in their interest. "Today we will be entering the Ghost Zone."

The class broke out in excited whispers, and only stopped when jack shouted, "Be quiet!"

Maddie chirped from beside him, "Thank you dear." Then she addressed the students once more. "There are a few things we need to go over before we can disembark, and it may sound a bit tedious, but I need you to pay attention." She warned, "We are going into an unexplored world. The very atmosphere could be toxic to breathe, and we simply don't know one way or the other." Sam and Danny were impressed. The class was still paying attention, and showed no signs of stopping. Tucker was ignoring the speech to scan the newest blue prints onto Cherl.

Maddie spent the next ten minutes going over the safety procedures and experiments that the class would participate in during the trip, and after three minutes people began to lose interest. By the end Sam was the only one still paying attention. She wanted to be informed in case one of the experiments could harm Danny. Danny stopped paying attention the second his mom started talking. He knew the safety procedures like the back of his hand, and opted to use his time mentally re-going over his checklist. He had water, six thermoses, a bazooka, and eleven Fenton Rays, and he was wearing a pair of Fenton Phones. Sam had another six Fenton Phones including the ones in her ears. Along with the Fenton Phones Sam had ten Wrist Rays and five Lipstick Blasters, and she was wearing a thermos under her backpack. Tucker was also wearing a pair of Fenton Phones and a concealed thermos, but other than one Wrist Ray he wasn't carting any weapons. Tucker's bag contained massive amounts of granola bars, and the first aid supplies.

Danny shared a look with his friends that confirmed they all had everything they needed just in time for Maddie to finish her speech and invite everyone onto the new and improved Specter Speeder, which was just the regular specter speeder stretched like a limo to accommodate the class. The student's and the teacher crowded in and landed in the exact same order they'd been in on the bus; Nerds in front guarded poorly by the pot bellied teacher, Jocks and cheerleaders in the middle where they had the best view, and the secret trio in the back the farthest away from everyone else they could get. Then with a quiet rumble the bus started to raise into the air and approach the swirling ghost portal.

Everyone was absolutely silent watching as the bus slowly disappeared into the portal. Jack's eyes were wide with excitement as he disappeared into the green mass, and Maddie at the wheel beside him had her eyes narrowed in concentration. Then the teacher and the nerds let out soft gasps as the wall of green engulfed them next. The A-lister's reactions varied. Paulina and Dash vibrated in their seats and leaned forward to go through the portal faster, but Star and Kwan were smarter. Kwan leaned back warily, but never took his eyes off the approaching portal even when it was encasing him. Star seemed to want to hyperventilate and shut her eyes tight before the portal got more than three feet away, and she didn't open her eyes until she was on the other side. The trio just silently laughed at how cliche everyone's reactions were, and Tucker yawned theatrically as they passed through, making it difficult for Danny and Sam to hide their laughter.

For a few minutes the class and Mr. Lancer were silent as they stared at the ghost zone in wonder. Yes they had been here, sort of, when Pariah Dark attacked, but they were all more interested in not dying at the hands of ghosts at the time than the fact that they were in the ghost zone. Jack and Maddie rambled on and on non stop making new theories and planning more excursions. It was Star who spotted the first ghost, not that she knew it. "What's that green spark?" She pointed out the left side window to what looked kind of like a glowing green star shooting across the endless green void that was the ghost zone. Maddie tried to chase it, but it was too far away, and too fast. Not long after Nathan spotted the next one to the right, and after that everyone began to spot them. Little green streaks flying by, literally. Finally Lester pulled a telescope from his pocket and, after ignoring the nerd comments from Dash, he correctly identified the green streaks as ghosts zipping by.

The idea that they were surrounded by ghosts finally seemed to settle in as the tourists looked out the windows at the now identified passing ghosts. The student's thoughts ranged from fear at being so close to dangerous ghosts to being excited at the possibility of running into Danny Phantom. More intelligently the adults wondered why when they were surrounded by ghosts they hadn't been attacked yet. Then Danny's ghost sense went off, followed quickly by the guns of the speeder charging. Someone was approaching the class.

The ecto cannons on the roof of the bus charged, preparing to fight, but then they powered down. Briefly Maddie and Jack wondered if that meant the ghost had left, but then the hum of the engine died and they knew that wasn't the case. Then there was a high pitched cackle that sent shivers down the spines of all but three people on the bus. Danny moaned and facepalmed, saying quietly to his two friends, "I knew it. We're doomed."

Tucker unhelpfully said, "At least it's only Technus." And with that being said Youngblood shot down their Specter Speeder with his pirate ship.

As the Speeder went flying powerlessly off into the ghost zone Sam just managed to say, "You jinxed us, Tuck." before they crashed.

The left side hit a rock, and the people flew over to the left side. Then the Speeder nose dived and hit an island about fifty feet down. The people inside were tossed and turned as the bus rolled, and finally the craft stopped topside down. Danny was up before anyone else, and doing a status check of everyone on board and their injuries. "Sam where is the Speeder's First Aid kit?" Danny asked.

Sam reached into a shelf that was by her foot and pulled out a plastic box to hand to Danny. "Thank's" He said as he took the box and approached the blond cheerleader. "Star." Danny called the girls attention away from the gash on her arm. She looked up slightly dazed by blood loss. "I'm going to wrap your wound, okay." The girl gritted her teeth, but just managed to nod. Gentilly Danny took her arm and pressed a clean cloth to the wound. Then with expert skill Danny quickly wrapped the arm and the cloth in gauze and taped it down.

"Th-thanks." Star said sincerely. Her arm still stung, but it wasn't so bad anymore. Blue eyes admired the bandage job and then returned to Danny's. "You did amazing." Star praised.

Danny rubbed the back of his neck and looked down at his toes as he said, "It was nothing."

Mr. Lancer spoke up, "Ms. Andrews is correct Daniel. Your bandage job is better than I've seen from some doctors." Maddie looked over the gauzed arm and nodded in agreement.

Danny looked more embarrassed, "Sam, want's to be a veterinarian, so I picked up some tricks from her." Sam and Tucker couldn't believe it. Even though Mr. Lancer still looked a little skeptical he, and everyone else, bought Danny's horrible lie. Then they turned their attention away from Danny and toward their situation. Danny let out a relieved sigh and turned to Sam and Tucker to plan. "Is the Specter Speeder repairable?" Danny asked Tucker. Tucker was his go to for 90% of his information, because if Tucker didn't know it already then he could find out faster than anyone else.

Tucker sighed and readjusted his glasses as he said, "I can't tell. It's completely devoid of power. I don't think there's even enough juice on this thing to turn on the ecto converters to charge it. For all I know this ship is in perfect condition besides a few dents."

Danny wasn't happy with the lack of information, but even no information was some information. "Okay. If you can't even turn this hunk of junk on long enough to read what's wrong than we're not getting it flying." Danny paused and then slumped his shoulders in defeat, "Which means we have to hike out." Danny turned to Sam, his strategist, "Any ideas?"

"You're not going to like it." Sam warned the young hero. Danny just nodded grimly for her to continue. "You have to take the lead, like you did when young blood attacked."

"Sam, are you forgetting I'm Danny _Fenton_ right now? No one will listen to anything I say." Danny pointed out.

Sam shook her head. "I'm not forgetting that, but it's the only feasible option at this point." She started ticking off her points on her fingers. "No one knows the ghost zone like you. I fact no one besides us has ever even been in the ghost zone before. You can lead us directly to the portal or to an ally that will take us there. Yes someone else could get lucky, but we only brought so much food, and it won't last long enough for that."

"Alright, alright." Danny stopped her. "You are right." Then Danny looked over at his parents who were worrying over the ecto converters in front. "I just don't know how to tell them I know my way around the ghost zone."

Tucker laughed, "Dude you live above a ghost portal. If anyone was going to have explored in here it's you."

Danny's eyes lit up and his friends knew he had an idea. He smirked and said, "I'll be right back." Tucker and Sam shared knowing looks and watched as their friend schooled his expression and walked up to his increasingly frantic parents. Danny morphed his expression into one of slight guilt and worry even though he was feeling pretty smug about his plan right about now. He walked past the A-listers with no problems. Seems they really did appreciate him helping Star. The nerds stared at him while he pasted, but they all had glazed looks in their eyes that informed Danny they didn't actually see him. Mr. Lancer was taking care of Star and trying to keep the kids calm, but his eyes flicked constantly to Danny's parents.

Danny heard Maddie tell Jack, "If we can't recharge then how will we get out of here? We can't just walk."

Danny answered for his dad, "Yeah we can."

Maddie jumped out of her skin and jerked towards her son in shock. Then what he actually said filtered through the gray matter and she became confused. "Honey we don't even know if we can breath the air. We can't just walk out there. Even if we could I don't know the way home, do you?"

The question was rhetorical but Danny answered it anyway. "Yeah, I do."

Maddie's confusion started to dissipate and her expression became stern. "What are you talking about Danny?"

Danny rubbed the back of his neck and stated, "I need to tell you guys something." Neither parent said anything, but their expressions clearly invited him to continue. "I, um, do you remember when you got into that huge fight on your anniversary?" Maddie nodded and Jack winced. "You remember that Dad got you a make up gift to apologize?"

Maddie smiled at the memory. "Yeah, but I don't see what this has to do with the current situation, sweetheart." Maddie pointed out.

Danny rubbed the back of his neck again, "Well I sort of maybe, knockedyourpresentintotheghostzone."

His mother blinked trying to make out the words and Jack eloquently said, "Huh?"

Slowly this time Danny said, "I knocked that present into the Ghost Zone, and I had to get it back."

Maddie gasped accusingly, "You've been in the Ghost Zone before!?"

Jack continued excitedly, "That's my boy, Danno! I'm so proud of you!" Jack punctuated with a strong pat on the back that nearly knocked Danny to the floor, not really, but it would have if he were human.

Maddie went on as if Jack hadn't spoken. "Why would you do that!? It's so dangerous! You could have been hurt. You could have been killed!"

"Mom, stop!" Danny placed a hand on her shoulder. "I did it because at the time I thought you and dad were divorcing. You were actually just talking about Aunt Alicia's divorce, but I didn't hear that part." Maddie stopped and her expression softened as Danny continued to explain. "I knew it was dangerous, so I took the proper precautions. I wore a hazmat suit and took a Specter Deflector and the Specter Speeder. It wasn't a problem. I didn't even get a scratch on me."

Maddie's tone was no longer panicky, but she was still scolding when she said, "That was still incredibly dangerous, and you should have told us. We would have gone with you to get the present, or we could have gotten a different one."

Danny smiled and said, "I know that now, but hindsight is 20/20. I'm telling you now though."

Jack crushed his son in a side hug, "We forgive you Danny. In fact I would have done the same thing." Danny was forced to use some of his ghostly strength to keep breathing.

"Why exactly are you telling us now, Danny? Not that I'm not happy," she explained, "but why now?"

Danny rubbed the back of his neck again and said, "Well there's more."

His mom raised an eyebrow and prompted, "Go on."

"I, um, did something stupid, multiple times." Danny studied his shoelaces. "I left the Specter Speeder, and I came back."

"WHAT!?" This time Maddie was so loud everyone in the bus looked at them. "How could you be so reckless, Danny!? Who knows what this sort of atmosphere could do to you, and you just exposed yourself to it!?" She screeched.  
Danny frantically shushed her. "Mom, you'll get the ghosts attention, stop!"

Maddie just barely forced her voice down to a normal volume, but her eyes flashed dangerously as she snarled, "Explain."

Danny gulped nervously as he faced down his mom, and this time it wasn't fake. It didn't matter how many enemies he faced there would always be something extra scary about his mom when she was super pissed. "I d-didn't think about the consequences. At the time I was sleep deprived and focused on getting the gift back. The claw broke, so I just leaned out the open door and grabbed it. Then later I got bored and I really wanted to see it again, so I snuck back in when you guys were chasing the box ghost." Maddie's eyes narrowed further and Jack wondered if maybe he should take his wife's ecto pistol before she shot their son. The class was amazed that Danny was brave enough to continue talking. "I came in here a lot after that, and I even started mapping the place."

Danny was relieved when Dash came to Danny's rescue. Then he got a sense of unreality that Dash was actually saving _him_ for once. "Wait! Are you saying you know the way out?" Dash asked incredulously.

Danny nodded immediately and added, "And the air is safe to breath."

Dash needed no more invitation. He instantly turned to the emergency exit in the back of the bus and pried it open. He and Paulina were the first ones out. Sam and Tucker were next, because they were already at the back of the bus. Then Kwan, Star, and the rest of the students. Mr. Lancer and the Fentons followed the flock of people they were supposed to protect. Maddie took a few deep breaths to calm herself, but the last one still came out as a growl. "Danny we will be talking more about this when we get home." She stated, and Danny nodded.

Dash scruffed Danny, but only after he moved away from his mother. Not that the blond jock would ever admit it, but Mrs. Fenton scared him. The larger boy pulled Danny to him and said with as much ferocity as he could muster. It wasn't much considering how terrified to be stranded in the ghost zone Dash was, but it seemed to do the trick when Danny cowered before him. "Fenton," Dash ground out, "you said you know the way home." Danny nodded hastily and Dash shouted in his face, "Then get us home!"

"O-of course!" Danny squawked. The pathetic show contented Dash, and the jock walked back to his group of A-listers. Danny used the time when Dash had his back turned to assess their surroundings. They were on an uninhabited floating island. It was just a barren chunk of floating rock, but there was a natural path that seemed to pass right under the edge of the island. Danny recognized this spot. They were about three days from Pandora's kingdom, and five from Frostbite's, but hopefully Pandora could give them a ride. Unfortunately there was no natural path that traveled close enough to the Fenton Portal for them to use it, even though it was a day closer than Pandora's Palace.

Mikey was the only person to see Danny's quick check of their surroundings, and it took him a moment to realise what Danny was doing, but when he did he was very impressed. Danny was an enigma that was for sure. "Maybe we'll learn more about the secret trio on this trip." Mikey thought idly.

Sam moved next to Danny and grabbed his right hand while Tucker flanked on the left. Danny stood a little straighter taking the role of leader unconsciously, and he said, "Okay everyone. As you now know, I've been in the Ghost Zone before." His voice projected in a confident manor that reminded the class of when Danny had stood up to the gunmen, but there was something different this time. When Danny had talked to Alister Martin he'd acted almost cocky. Now Danny was just addressing them calmly. There was nothing fake about it, and it bothered the people who caught it.

"I've made enemies and allies in here, and I'm going to lead you to one of those allies. Unfortunately we are at least three days from anyone friendly." People started to complain, loudly. Danny waited a moment and then raised a hand to silence them. Of course they didn't listen immediately, but after Sam shouted at them to shut up, they did. "Thanks, Sam. Now as I was saying, we are a few days walk from my allies, and-"

Maddie cut her son off. "Danny, there's no such thing as a good ghost you know that." Her voice was kind and understanding, but Danny just wanted to blast her with laser eyes.

After closing his eyes to hide the angry green flash Danny looked up to his mom and lied to her face. "You're right." Sam and Tucker tensed at his sides and he could practically feel the trying not to protest. "Mostly." Danny wouldn't be surprised if some confusion was leaking onto Sam and Tucker's faces right about now.

"Mostly?" Jack asked with innocent curiosity. Maddie also looked curious, and after deducing that his mom wasn't angry with his statement he continued.

"Some, maybe even most, ghosts are evil. Ghosts are controlled by a mixture of two things obsession and reason." Danny stopped his mom from interrupting. "I know you think ghosts can't reason, but I've found differently. Ghost's are intelligent, and they make decisions based on their obsessions. If an action in anyway prohibits a ghost's obsession then that ghost will do anything in their power to avoid it, but otherwise they are free to reason like any human might."

"Then why do all ghosts attack." Maddie poked holes in Danny's logic, or so she thought.

"I'm getting to that." Danny said, "Like humans, ghosts have the decision to act good, or bad, and like humans they can learn. Ghosts have learned that earth is covered in people who will attack them out of fear, so the only ghosts that take the risk of going to earth are the ghosts who want to cause mischief or harm. There are hundreds of thousands of ghosts who never leave the ghost zone because they have no interests in the human world." Danny looked hopefully at his parents' expressions. Maddie had the analytical look she got when she was critiquing new scientific theories, but Jack looked like he was in a ghost hunter teaching seminar and he was ready to take notes. All in all it wasn't a bad reaction from either of them, something that greatly surprised Danny. Maybe there was hope for his family after all.

It was Mr. Lancer asking questions this time. "Why does Danny Phantom come into the human world then? Do you know?"

Danny felt a little weird answering questions about his obsession. It was incredibly rude to ask a ghost about his or her obsession, but right now he was Fenton, and they really didn't know they were being rude to Phantom. Danny let it pass and tried not to show his discomfort. "Well I think Phantom is obsessed with helping people, and when the ghosts started pouring into Amity he found an easy outlet for his obsession that was good."

Lester spoke up next, "What happens if a ghost goes against their obsession?"

"They won't." Danny answered.

"No, I mean, against their will." Lester elaborated.

"Oh." Danny said quietly as the image of Dark Dan passed through his head and he shuddered. The shudder confused his classmates and worried his parents and teacher. Then he answered, "They'd go insane." Danny looked at his wristwatch and saw he'd been explaining things for half an hour. "We're eating up time talking here guys. I'm not through answering questions, but right now we need to get moving. So go grab your bags and after we ditch the unnecessary stuff we'll be on our way." No one liked the sound of that, but no one argued.

 _AN: Writing Pamela waking up Sam was so much fun. Then of course there's Danny/Sam fluff, and Tucker making fun of them, and Jack and Maddie... The list could go on. I had a lot of fun writing this chapter and everyone in it, so enjoy and R &R._


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

It had only been a short while since the crash, but everyone was following Danny's orders. It was apparent to everyone that Danny was the most knowledgeable person when it came to the ghost zone, and maybe the most knowledgeable about ghosts as well. Paulina was the only person who even questioned the "geek's" authority, but Dash didn't because he was slightly smarter than Paulina, if only by a little.

Soon enough the class was in and out of the bus, though it still took forever considering the simple task they were assigned. Danny, Sam, and Tucker then went from person to person making sure the only heavy objects were food, water, or first aid gear. Sam was ready to force Paulina to give up her makeup, but Danny stepped in and stopped her. Paulina could carry the extra half a pound, and it wouldn't change anything, but it would make the girl happier and easier to deal with. Sam couldn't argue with Danny's logic, but she really wasn't sure that things would be better if Paulina was happy.

It turns out everyone wanted to keep something superficial, not the Danny blamed them. Dash and Kwan kept a foot ball. Paulina clung to her makeup, and Star to her extra outfit. Nathan had a recorder on him. Mikey kept a game device, and Lester had his telescope. Mr. Lancer had nothing but a worn copy of Hamlet. By far the most difficult people to deal with were Jack and Maddie. Jack wanted to cart around twenty pounds of defective and or useless ghost hunting equipment, Danny couldn't get him to let go of the ghost gabber, but everything else was gone. Maddie was similarly carrying too much, but her stuff actually worked which made it harder to convince her to let go. Finally Danny convinced her only three weapons were needed. Her bow staff, Fenton Ray, and Anti-ghost net were the weapons she chose, and Danny had to admit they could potentially come in handy. Finally everyone whittled down their supplies as much as they could and Danny addressed all of them as a group once more.

"Okay. We're ready then?" Everyone nodded to Danny's question. "Let's get going then." Danny turned and started walking, Sam and Tucker right beside him. A few seconds after everyone else followed. They walked to the edge of the island and Danny was very diplomatic in organizing everyone as they moved to the path below. He had Dash and Kwan go down first, and then Danny helped his mom lower people into the jocks' waiting arms.

The students and their teacher were easy to get down, but Jack was really heavy, and Sam and Tucker had to help lowering him. Sam and Tucker refused to be lowered and just hopped down themselves. Seeing as it was only a fourteen or so foot drop they just extended themselves down and dropped the last seven or eight feet. Maddie tried to insist on lowering Danny, to his embarrassment, but he promised he was fine, so she hopped down like Sam and Tuck. Then only Danny was left, and he surprised everyone by just hopping down. He didn't even lower himself from the ledge first, he just jumped like it was a three foot drop, leaving everyone gobsmacked at the display.

Paulina muttered to Star, "El esta loco." Star nodded her head vigorously in agreement.

Danny took no note of his classmates amazement and just waved them forward. "Come on. We've got a long ways to go." Sam and Tucker once again happily trailed after Danny, and the rest soon reluctantly followed.

For the first hour of walking people clung quietly to their own groups. Maddie and jack talked worriedly together about Danny and their situation. The A-listers were walking near the back, as far from Danny's group as they could get. Nathan, Lester, and Mikey had formed there own trio, after all nerds stick together. Mr. Lancer just bounced from group to group checking on things. Whether they were talking in hushed whispers, or walking in silence, everyone was worried.

The worried atmosphere clung to the group for a while, and Danny enjoyed the peace while it lasted, because he knew it wouldn't stick around. At about the two hour mark Mikey proved Danny right. "Danny, Didn't you say you'd answer more questions while we walked?" Mikey pointed out. Danny just sighed and nodded. It was time for the questions. Mikey turned the conversation to a more personal topic. "You've been the school mystery for a week now." Mikey pointed out, making everyone realise the opportunity they were given here to find out more about the secret trio.

"Yeah." Danny answered cautiously, "What about it?"

"You protected Valerie in the cafeteria," Mikey's eyes flickered to Dash briefly as he avoided the jock's name, "turned down the most popular girl in school, and wrote that confusing paper, not to mention getting held hostage by those thugs." Almost too fast to see Danny's face showed his slight panic at Mikey's last comment, but Mikey didn't notice.

Maddie however did notice and she interrupted Mikey, "Hostage!? Danny when was this?"

Danny quickly came up with a half truth. "He's talking about the takeover of the school."

Danny's mom sighed in relief, "Oh good. You scared me for a second. It sounded as if it pertained specifically to you."

"Well it did." Mr. Lancer not-so-helpfully commented. The simple comment had a complex reaction. Maddie planted herself in front of Danny, Jack followed her, and the class was just starting to realize that Danny never told his parents the full story of what happened at the school. The entire school knew Danny had been held at gun point, but his own parents didn't know. Maddie forced her son to stop walking and stared him down with a look that clearly demanded an explanation.

Danny rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "I didn't want you to worry. Nothing really happened and I got out completely unharmed."

"Got out of what, Daniel?" She used his full name! Danny knew he was really, really in trouble now.

Danny narrated calmly, "They separated out a few students to threaten the military. They wanted nine million dollars and they promised to," Danny's composer slipped just slightly and he stuttered, "s-shoot a kid every half hour until they got it." Danny paused for a second too long.

"And?" His mother prompted. Maddie was somewhere between pissed and worried.

Danny looked down to avoid his mother's eyes. "And I was the first student they tried to shoot." Danny admitted just loud enough for everyone to hear. Maddie gasped horrified and Jack's jaw dropped before they rushed to pull their son into a hug. Danny quickly continued, "It didn't happen though. Phantom saved me." Danny admitted, "Th-thats why I didn't want to tell you." Danny pulled back from his parents and looked away guiltily as he said, "I didn't tell you, because at the end of the day nothing had changed, and I didn't want to hear another speech about how Phantom is scum."

Danny's parents found themselves nearly in tears that their little boy had gone through something so traumatic. How scared he must have been to know they were going to shoot him. Dear god, there was probably a countdown on their boys head, and worst of all they never knew! How could they not know that their boy was so close to death!? Why wouldn't he tell them? "I don't care," Jack spoke in a more serious tone than anyone could ever recall him using, "if it's over, or who saves you, if you are ever in a life threatening situation I want you to tell your mother and I." Maddie's throat seemed to close in on itself forcing her silence, but she still nodded in agreement with her husband. Jack's tone then lightened becoming more caring again, "Danny we love you, so promise us that you won't do this to us again, please."

Danny felt his heart swell at the words, "We love you", but then guilt crushed it when his dad asked Danny to promise not to do it again. As much as he hated to admit it Danny couldn't trust his parents with his secret, so though the guilt was crushing him, he lied right to their faces. Danny couldn't help the hand that went behind his back and crossed his fingers, but he kept a perfectly straight face as he said, "Okay, dad." Nathan was the only person who was at the right angle to see Danny cross his fingers, and he was disturbed to know Danny was lying.

Danny was lying, and Nathan was watching him do it. His face didn't change, or give any signs. Danny said, "Okay, dad", with the most sincere expression, and then he hugged his dad. It wasn't only that Danny lied so easily that bugged Nathan. Danny lied to his dad when his dad was being incredibly caring and asking Danny to be honest about when he was in danger. It wasn't like it was a hard promise, but Danny crossed his fingers. Danny wasn't going to tell his parents the next time he was in danger, and Danny already knew that. No, Nathan didn't like what that simple action implied at all.

To everyone other than Nathan, Danny and his parents seemed to have a sincere and loving moment. Then the class was silent for a while as they continued walking before Mikey asked what he'd been meaning to ask in the first place. This time Mikey had the courtesy to walk up to Danny and ask his question quietly. "Danny, why are you so secretive?"

"I've said it before; I like my privacy." Danny answered easily.

Mikey pulled on his ear nervously and said, "There's a difference between privacy and solitude."

Danny tilted his head and said, "Is there?"

"Yes. Privacy is keeping important things secret. Solitude is hiding yourself away from people." Mikey eloquently stated.

Danny made a contemplating noise and then said, "Maybe you're right, but I don't think it's that simple. I think privacy is keeping the details of your personal life private from acquaintances, and people who aren't your close friends and family. Solitude does perhaps take it a step further, but only because you have a smaller group of friends, not because you're hiding anything."

After a moment of silence Mikey said, "Yeah I guess you're right."

Danny smiled, "I'm glad I could convince you." Then he walked forward to catch up with his friends, leaving Mikey behind.

Mikey didn't realize Danny had never answered the question until Nathan asked him what he talked to Danny about. Mikey frowned and admitted, "He dodged a question again." Neither Nathan or Mikey noticed Star listening in on their conversation.

Nathan frowned at hearing that Danny pulled off yet another evasion tactic. Anyone who had asked the trio, especially Danny, a serious personal question before had come to realize those three were pros at getting out of answering. Lester just snorted and said, "What did you expect? You asked Danny a personal question, and no one has ever gotten any information out of him."

"Yeah, I know, but he was being so," Mikey squinted searching for the right word, "honest with his parents." Nathan was already shaking his head.

"I was the only person who saw it, but when he told his dad he'd tell him the next time he was in danger, he was lying." Nathan said.

Lester was skeptical, "How do you know that? He looked like he was telling the truth to me."

Nathan laughed humorlessly, "Yeah, you and everyone else, but I saw Danny cross his fingers."

Star finally deemed the conversation worthy of her and butted in to get more information. "Are you talking about Danny?" Star asked making the nerds jump and blush in unison.

Nathan and Mikey both stuttered no, but Lester said yes. Nathan glared and Lester while Mikey stuttered, "Well, yeah, but what's it to you."

Star raised her hands up in mock surrender. "You can't blame a girl for being curious." Nathan relaxed just a little, and Lester was putty from the moment he saw her, but Mikey remained suspicious. Star sighed and looked over her shoulder at the other A-lister nervously. Then she turned back to the geeks, "Tell you what. I'll tell you all the details about how Danny turned down Paulina if you tell me what you were talking about." Mikey looked convinced, but his mouth hadn't opened, so Star added, "I was right next to her when it happened, literally two feet away."

"Fine." Mikey gave in. "I just went up to talk to Danny. I asked him why he's so secretive, but he dodged the question."

"So?" Star flipped her hair impatiently.

"So," Nathan said getting into the gossip, "It's not the first time he's done that. In fact the Sam, Tucker, and Danny do that. If you ask them a personal question, especially about Danny, Sam and Tucker change the topic or just plain clam up and refuse to speak. Danny's even weirder though."

This was getting interesting. "Weirder how?" Star pushed.

Mikey took the conversation back, "Weird as in he changes the topic so subtly that you don't even realise he's doing it until he's gone. I asked him a question about why he's so secretive and he turned it into a conversation about the difference between privacy and solitude. Then the conversation finished, he left, and I didn't realise he'd done it again until Nathan asked what I'd been talking to Danny about."

Okay, now Star was very interested. This didn't sound like the loser trio she knew. Heck the way Mikey said it, they sounded like secret agents or something. Star almost laughed at the thought of the loser trio being secret agents. "You are talking about the loser trio aren't you?" Star asked raising an eyebrow.

Lester smirked knowingly, "You A-listers may still call them that, but the rest of the school has started to refer to them as the secret trio, because they are so tight lipped." Then his smirk grew and he said, "We told you what we were talking about. Now it's your turn."

Star looked over her shoulder again to make sure none of her "friends" were listening. When she saw they were all talking out of hearing distance she sighed half in relief half in defeat. Now there was nothing stopping her from telling the story to the nerds. Oh well, at least it was a fun story to tell.

Danny stopped listening to the conversation behind him when Star started to repeat the story of how he turned down Paulina. He'd heard the story so many time already it was boring to listen to. Besides that Tucker was asking him a question. "Wait isn't this one of the paths you marked as 'dangerous, avoid'?", Tucker said suddenly.

Danny grimaced and nodded. "It's not the worst one, but it's not great either."

"So how did it earn its title then?" Sam asked.

"There's not much on this path. It goes deeper and deeper into the ghost zone, and there is less and less ghosts." Danny said, "However a little chunk of this path runs through Walker's territory."

"Danny, that's no a little dangerous, that's suicide!" Sam yelled.

Danny shook his head no, and said, "It really is only a little bit of the path. We'll be through in twenty minutes at this pace, and if I speed everyone up then we can cut it at least in half. And he's the only real danger, though the ghost writer's lair directly attaches to this path."

Tucker snorted and then let out an extremely fake cough that barely covered the word, "Scrooge." His comment successfully lightened the mood and distracted Sam from scolding Danny more, something which Danny was very grateful for. The group continued to walk without incident for over two hours, which was way more than any of the trio had expected, but then Paulina started complaining.

"Dannny, are we almost there yet?" Paulina whined.

Danny rolled his eyes at the predicted behavior and rubbed the back of Sam's hand to stop her from grinding her teeth. "No, Paulina. I told you it's likely going to be three full days of walking until we reach safety. It may be even longer than that though."

"But my feet hurt." Paulina whined.

Danny glanced back at Paulina's feet and saw the girl in a pair of three inch wedge heels. "Paulina didn't Mr. Lancer tell everyone to wear clothes they were comfortable in. I believe he even made a point of telling you not to wear heeled shoes."

Paulina looked at her shoes with a slightly confused expression and said, "These aren't heels they're wedges." Sam face-palmed and Mr. Lancer looked like he was having a hard time not following her example.

Danny patiently informed her, "Those are a type of heels." Paulina got a look of understanding on her face, and she fell silent. Danny watched the latina for a while and then sighed. He came up with an idea, but it would depend on if Danny could reason through Paulina's pride. It was a long shot, but he knew it was her best option. "Paulina." Danny looked to her.

"Yeah, Danny." She must have really been in pain if she was forgetting to be mean to the 'loser'/.

"I have an idea that will help your feet, but you're not going to like it." Danny warned.

"You're not getting rid of my Armani Rebecca Suede Platform Wedges, are you?" Paulina asked suspiciously. Everyone was paying attention to Paulina and Danny's conversation, and they expected him to deny that he would get rid of her shoes. After all she had nothing else to wear. That's why they were surprised by his next sentence.

"Yes, I am, but I think you'll be more concerned with wearing something unfashionable more." Danny admitted.

"What are you talking about?" Paulina said wincing as she took a less careful step that hurt her foot more.

Danny sighed and said, "I was thinking of giving you my shoes."

"Eew, No!" Paulina cried in disgust. "I don't want to wear loser shoes, especially old dirty ones!"

Danny turned his head to look Paulina in the eye as he said, "Paulina we've been walking for just over two and a half hours, we're not close to done walking today, and we have to walk for another two days after that." Paulina's eyes were stubbornly narrowed so Danny continued. "You are already in pain, and if you keep wearing those shoes fashion will be the least of your problems."

"Is that a threat!?" Dash butted in.

"It's not a threat but a fact. By the end of the two days in those shoes I wouldn't be surprised if Paulina's feet were bleeding." Danny stated.

Paulina's eyes widened at the image of her feet blistered and bleeding in her Armani shoes and suddenly the used-to-be white loser sneakers didn't look so bad. She swallowed her pride and said, "Alright."

"Alright?" Danny made her clarify.

"I'll let you give me your shoes." Paulina huffed.

"Thank you." Danny simply replied. He then asked the class ow wait for a moment, though they had already stopped when he did, and he took his shoes off his feet. They were old and worn. There was a hole in the side of the right one, and neither one had any tread left, but they were flat, cloth, and a huge improvement on Paulina's death traps. Danny placed them at Paulina's feet, and the dainty hispanic girl slipped off her hundred dollar shoes before slipping the older ones on. She sniffed at having to continue like that, but the rest of the class looked awed at Danny's kindness.

As they walked on the class wondered why Danny had acted so kind. That was the same girl who had tried to manipulate him, and yet he still took off his shoes and gave them to her. "Danny you're too nice to them." Sam said as Danny continued to walk with them.

Danny defended, "It's not like there was much of a choice Sam. I couldn't just let her walk all the way in those death traps."

"My point exactly." Sam said her smirk fading into a smile, "But I wouldn't have you any other way."

Tucker snorted, "That's good, because he's 'never going to change' remember." Tucker quoted Danny's essay.

"Shut up Tuck!" Danny blushed.

Sam giggled, "You totally brought that on yourself."

Lester asked Danny, "Why did you write that paper if you weren't willing to have it read?"

Danny was a little startled that Lester was listening, but when he turned it seemed Lester wasn't the only one. Everyone was listening to Danny. "Oh, um." Danny was caught off guard for once, but pulled a decent half truth together. "I just never thought mine would be read, not in a million years. I mean yeah Lancer would read it, but I figured Dash would choose himself not a loser like me."

"You shouldn't speak so ill of yourself, Daniel." Mr. Lancer said.

Danny winced, and everyone figured it was for being caught referring to himself as a loser, but then Danny said, "Could you not call me Daniel? It's Danny, or even Mr. Fenton if you insist on being formal, but I don't like Daniel." He skillfully changed the topic.

"It's your name isn't it?" Mr. Lancer questioned.

"Yeah, but only one person calls me Daniel, and I don't like to be reminded of that person." Danny explained truthfully. It was nice to tell the truth for once.

Danny's dad decided to be helpful and remind Danny of a person who called Danny Daniel all the time. Maybe being reminded of someone he liked calling him Daniel would improve Danny's look on his full name. "Vladdie called you Daniel all the time!"

Danny muttered something under his breath, his friends heard him say that's why I hate the name, then out loud he answered, "Yeah, I know."

Jack beamed knowing he made his son feel better, but Mr. Lancer caught the meaning behind Danny's words, though he kept the information to himself. Mr. Lancer was becoming more confused about his student, it seemed, with each passing second. Just last week Danny was well known for his reputation of bladder problems and getting bullied by Dash. Yes Lancer knew about the bullying, but there was really nothing he could do about it. Dash was the star quarterback, and unless there was proof of Dash's misbehavior than the principal insisted Dash's actions were ignored. Now though Danny was the school mystery. Somewhere in the space of a week the entire school discovered no one, except his two closest friends, knew anything about Danny, and more importantly nothing could be found out about Danny. Yes Lancer was sure there was physical facts known about the boy, and everyone knew who he was related to, but there wasn't a scrap of personal information to be found anywhere. The closest anything came was Danny's proficiency to avoid a topic.

It was the thought about avoided topics that made Mr. Lancer realise Danny had just pulled the same trick on him. He never commented on why he called himself a loser. Danny just professionally avoided the topic.

Danny walked the class for another two hours before he called for a twenty minute lunch break. The group didn't wait before they all flopped to the floor to tired to lower themselves gently. Instantly everyone was pulling out their lunches, but Maddie stopped them. "Wait don't eat yet."

"Awe why not, Mads." Jack pouted.

Maddie gave him an indulging smile and said, "Because, Jack, we have to make the food last for two days. We can't just eat it all now."

"Oh." A look of understanding crossed Jack's face, and he wasn't alone. "So what do we do?" Jack asked his brilliant wife.

"We gather up all the food and ration it." Maddie stated.

Most of the class groaned, but they were saved by Danny. "Actually mom that won't be necessary."

"Oh, and why not?" His mom asked.

Danny shrugged. "I kind of expected something like this to happen, so I packed for it. Everyone still has to make this lunch last all day, but the next two days are covered."

"You brought food?" Mr. Lancer inquired with a raised eyebrow.

Danny nodded, "Yeah, and water. Granted it's not going to be fun living off of granola bars for two days, but we'll live." No one needed more assurance than that, and they dug into their lunches. Most people were done eating within ten minutes, and then the conversations about the ghost zone and Danny started up. Danny gritted his teeth and drowned out he noise soothed by Sam and Tucker argueing about meat verses veggies again. It was nice to know some things would never change.

All too soon in the opinion of the class and it's teacher, Danny called the end of the break. It was still two hours until they reached the secluded spot Danny planned for them to stop at. Unfortunately Danny underestimated the time, or over estimated the speed of his class, and it took them twice as long. The walk was boring and full of much gossip and many games of I-spy that usually ended in a rock. The walked was long to say the least, but eventually they reached the spot Danny was looking for. "We're here." Danny called out as he stopped. The group was in the shadow of a large rock, not that there was a shadow, but the spot was protected none the less.

"Here?" Star looked around confused, and she wasn't the only one.

"Yeah. Here is where we are stopping for the night. It's just on the border of the territory of a really powerful ghost, so we're not likely to be bothered if we stay here tonight." Danny said smiling as he sat down.

"Sweet!" Kwan said as he flopped where he was. Dash, Paulina, and Star flopped around their fellow A-lister, and everyone else was all too happy to follow. Mr. Lancer sat with the Fentons, and Mikey, Nathan, and Leser sat in another group of three. The main trio sat farther away from everyone closer to the edge of the rock so they could see into the ghost's territory. As everyone got comfortable chatter started up once more, and once more Danny's name was being mentioned. Said boy groaned as he hear a particularly stupid comment about how Danny was pretending to be brave to impress Sam.

"What's up?" Sam asked concerned.

Danny smiled at his girlfriend's caring amethyst eyes. "Nothing too bad, they're just talking about me again."

"Can you blame them?" Tucker asked. "I mean even if you hadn't managed to make yourself known as the most mysterious person in the entire school over the course of a week, everything you've done since we got into the Ghost Zone is naturally against your Danny Fenton persona."

"I know, I know." Danny waved Tucker off. "It's still annoying."

"Hey look at it this way, at least there haven't been any ghost attacks yet." Tucker didn't even finish before Danny was face-palming and Sam was yelling at him about Jinxes.

"Have you not learned anything from all the other times, Bad Luck Tuck?" Sam growled.

Tucker replied in indignation, "I'm not bad luck!" Just then Danny's ghost sense went off and Tucker deadpanned, "Never mind. I jinxed us."

Just then a ghost flew from around a floating rock and stopped short at the sight in front of him. The ghost was about Danny's height, tall but not quite six feet, but he was skinnier than Danny. He also had medium length midnight hair that was the type of messy from not combing your hair for a month. The Ghost Writer was just minding his own business going for a fly around the zone to get the creative juices flowing when he came across a large group of humans. It seemed odd, but only for a moment before he noticed the ghost boy standing sheepishly off to one side of the group. "Daniel!" The ghost bellowed, "Why are you carting humans!"


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

Just then a ghost flew from around a floating rock and stopped short at the sight in front of him. The ghost was about Danny's height, tall but not quite six feet, but he was skinnier than Danny. He also had medium length midnight hair that was the type of messy from not combing your hair for a month. The Ghost Writer was just minding his own business going for a fly around the zone to get the creative juices flowing when he came across a large group of humans. It seemed odd, but only for a moment before he noticed the ghost boy standing sheepishly off to one side of the group. "Daniel!" The ghost bellowed, "Why are you carting humans!"

Just then Jack screamed, "GHOST!", over the top of the ghost writer. He and Maddie pointed various weapons at the ghost only to find their son in their way.

"No! Stop!" Danny jumped in front of them.

"Danny move there's a ghost!" Maddie shouted in panic.

Danny's voice was kind and soothing as he said, "I know it is mom, but trust me and lower your weapons."

Maddie would never know what made her lower her weapons when her son asked. Maybe it was the particular mixture of desperation and pity that he held in his eyes as he asked her, or maybe it was the odd sense of familiarity that sent a chill down her spine as she held the ecto weapon up to Danny. Either way she lowered the gun to her side at the same time as Jack. "O-okay." Maddie said unsurely.

Surprise, hope, and distrust ran through her son's expression almost before Maddie could see them, and it broke her heart to see her son so conflicted. Danny gave his parents one last measuring gaze before turning to the ghost. "Hello, Ghost Writer."

"You didn't answer my question, Daniel." The ghost growled in a low tone that terrified all but the secret trio. The Fentons found it difficult to keep their weapons pointed at the ground.

"Do you think I would do something like this on purpose? I don't like his anymore than you do." Danny retorted.

"Not the question I asked. Why are they here, Phan-" The Ghost Writer was cut of by Danny.

"That's Fenton, Writer, and the human's in charge of the school thought it was a good idea to send a class of students to the ghost zone for a field trip. I didn't have the authority or pre warning to stop it." Danny explained.

The ghost surprised everyone, minus the trio, by laughing so hard he was holding his stomach and curled into a ball. "BWAHAHAHAHAH! You have the worst luck!"

Danny's lips curled into a smirk, never seen by anyone outside team phantom before. "What clued you in? My parents profession, or my social standing inside and out of the infinite realms?"

"Hahah ah, you have a point, Ghost Child." The Ghost Writer sighed, "Well I suppose I'll be on my way then."

"Wait. I know this is a lot to ask, but would you let us stay with you." Danny quickly added, "It's only for a night and I'll make sure they don't wander beyond the area you allow."

"Why should I?" The ghost's eyes narrowed on the boy, "I own you nothing, and I will gain nothing from it."

Danny looked like he was contemplating something really hard. "I'll ask clockwork if he'll let you meet Shakespeare."

"I've asked, he said no." The ghost writer said, but he countered, "How about you introduce me to a human as interested in literature as I am?"

Danny blinked in surprise and said, "Really, why?"

"I'm starting to lose faith in my old species. If you can prove literate appreciative people still exist I'll let you and your group stay a night." The ghost proposed.

Danny looked back at his teacher, Mr. Lancer, and then back to the ghost writer. "Ghost Writer, I'd like you to meet my English teacher Mr. Lancer." Then Danny turned his back on the ghost to talk to his teacher. "Mr. Lancer, this is the Ghost Writer. He is the master scribe of the ghost zone. I know he's a ghost, but if you could just look past that I'd imagine you'd find you have a lot in common with each other."

Mr. Lancer paled in fear that his student was sacrificing him to this ghost. The ghost regarded him with cold green eyes that chilled the teacher to the bone. Then the ghost spoke to him. He said, "A doubtful friend is worse than a certain enemy."

Mr. Lancer recognized he Aesop quote immediately and finished it, "Let a man be one thing or the other and then we know how to meet him."

The ghost smiled and then turned to Danny, "You did it. I didn't think you could, but perhaps humanity is not lost yet." Then the ghost's eyes turned back to the English teach and he said, "Thank you, Mr. Lancer, for rekindling my faith." The ghost turned abruptly and a path formed behind him as he walked. "Follow me." Danny wasted no time following the ghost, and though Sam and Tucker were the first to follow him everyone was surprised that Mr. Lancer was only a step behind.

The Ghost Writer lead them for about half a mile to what looked like a large white mansion, not unlike the white house. The path ended at the ghost's door step, and the ghost invited them in. The ghost lead them through the doors, and the group was surprised to see a bigger library than any of them could have imagined. Maddie and Jack were beginning to relax against their better judgement in their excitement at being inside a ghost's lair. Being in the Ghost Zone was one thing, being inside the home of a ghost was another thing entirely.

The class was walked down a long hallway to a room at the end which looked like Sam's theater except with more sofas. "This is my study for when I have groups. You can stay here for the night." The ghost writer said mostly to Danny. Then he added, "You can wander this room as much as you want, but if you want to go anywhere else you have to ask."

No one noticed Mr. Lancer biting his lip in contemplation as Danny said, "Thanks Writer. I'm grateful for your hospitality and I won't let the other humans take advantage of it."

"Bene venisti. (You are welcome.)" The Ghost Writer replied in Latin before he turned to leave.

"Wait." Mr. Lancer stopped the ghost, who turned his green eyes to the teacher. "Can I look at your library?" The class and the Fentons were surprised that Mr. Lancer was trusting this ghost so much, but Sam and Tucker rolled their eyes, and Danny smirked. It was obvious to the trio that Mr. Lancer and the Ghost Writer would be friends, and Danny had mentioned more than once that he wished he could introduce the two to each other.

The Ghost smiled kindly and said, "Of course, as long as the Ghost child doesn't mind?" The Ghost Writer looked to Danny for an answer.

Before Danny could answer Dash interrupted, "Why is the ghost calling you, Ghost child, Fenton?"

Danny sighed and answered Dash first. "That ghost has a name, Ghost Writer, and the ghosts of the zone have many names for me. Ghost child is just because I'm one of the only humans in the entire world who has ever helped a ghost, and I was the first human to make friends with ghosts."

Suddenly the Ghost Writer broke out into laughter and said, "You are too good at that child." Then he split to Latin and said, "Fere libenter homines id quod volunt credunt. (Men readily believe what they wish.)"

Mr. Lancer recognized the quote from Julius Caesar and replied with a question in as much Latin as he could remember, "Saepe mentitur? (Does he lie often?)"

Danny answered in fluent Latin, "Quotidie, sed custodi tibi. (Every day, but keep that to yourself.)"

Mr. Lancer only understood the words, 'keep', and, 'to yourself', but he got the jist of it. He didn't have a chance to respond to that because Maddie cut in. "Wait. Was that Latin, Danny!?"

Danny looked at her nervously but the Ghost Writer cut in, "Not that this isn't interesting and all, but I believe I asked Daniel a question."

"Yes, Mr. Lancer can go with you, just remember he has to sleep at some point." Danny finally gave the his ghostly acquaintance permission to lead his teach off through his library.

"Thank you." Ghost Writer said, and then he turned to Mr. Lancer. "So you wanted to see the library?" Mr. Lancer nodded. "Follow me." The ghost lead the teacher out the door.

Maddie turned on Danny and opened her mouth as if to question him, but before she could Sam interrupted. "It's getting late we should eat, and then maybe get some sleep." Sam's sentence reminded Jack that he was hungry and he distracted Maddie with his want of food. The rest of the group knew that Sam was just avoiding questions directed at Danny, but they gave in to the idea of food and didn't push the questions, yet.

Danny sighed and shot a grateful look to Sam. "Thanks. I didn't want to deal with my mom's million questions." He was speaking in Esperanto so they wouldn't be understood by everyone around them

Tucker nodded in agreement with Danny and followed his example speaking in Esperanto. "That was quick thinking on the food thing."

Sam smiled at the compliment, they were rare from Tucker, he bigger on the teasing. "Thanks, Tuck, but you know it won't last. At most they'll wait until tomorrow morning." Sam wasn't as good at Esperanto as the boys, but she was good enough to say what she wanted.

Danny frowned and said seriously, "I don't know if I'll be able to keep my secret from everyone on this trip."

"Whoa whoa whoa! What are you saying Danny? I said you wouldn't be able to stop ham from asking questions no that you had to answer them." Sam said.

"I know, but it's just this gut feeling, and I don't think everyone will figure it out, but the nerds are really observant, and Mr. Lancer is in the dark most of the time because he's so oblivious to what goes on around him. He's stayed ignorant simply because he believes my lies, but my lies are being strained here, and it will only take one good clue for him to get it." Danny explained.

"But, Dude, what is someone calls the Idiots in White?" Tucker asked.

"I don't know." Danny sighed and put his head in his hands to try and stave off the headache he was forming.

"Hey at least your parents are still oblivious." Sam tried to cheer up her boyfriend, and it worked, but not for the reason she thought it would.

"Yeah they are." Danny smiled as he said, "But I'm actually not as worried about them figuring everything out."

"What!?" Tucker and Sam exclaimed at the same time and Tucker continued, "What happened to 'they want to rip me apart molecule by molecule'?"

"They still do, but just look at them. They're not attacking the Ghost Writer and they let Mr. Lancer walk off with a ghost. They trusted me when I asked them too, and they were receptive to the idea that not all ghosts are evil." Danny rambled, "I mean they're still oblivious, and they can't see beyond the end of their noses, but they're able to learn." Danny stopped himself there.

Sam and Tucker were quiet for a moment and then they smiled, and Tucker said, "Maybe they will be able to learn your secret one day."

Danny chuckled in quiet amazement. "I never thought I'd think about telling them. After Pariah Dark when they still couldn't see Phantom as anything other than a ghost to be destroyed I just kind of gave the idea up."

Sam pulled Danny into a hug. "I'm glad your family has a chance to be your family again. Just remember that Tuck and I will always be here."

Danny smiled back at his friends and said, "My family never left me. You guys are my family. Don't get me wrong, I'll be ecstatic if I can include my parents in my family, but you guys, and Jazz and Elle are my family, and I don't need anyone else."

Finally Tucker couldn't take it anymore and said, "Man, why do you have to be such a sap? Yeah we're here, but there's no need to weep."

"Shut up, Tucker!" Sam and Danny yelled at him and both punch him.

"Ow! Why am I the one that always gets abused!?" Tucker complained in English while Sam and Danny laughed at him. (AN: I decided not to do what I did with the Latin all the way through this conversation because it would just take to long, and it's not like Google Translate is that accurate anyway.)

Once the trio switched back to English the nerds broke out in chatter. "What was that?" Nathan asked.

Mikey looked wide eyed at his two friends and said, "I don't know. I didn't even know Danny and Sam spoke Esperanto."

"I taught Tucker some when we were working on a project in web design." Lester admitted. "Maybe he taught the others."

Mikey looked skeptical, "We've been using that language for years, and none of us are half as good as them. I didn't even understand most of what they were saying."

"How did they get so good do you think?" Nathan wondered. He'd looked up classes in Esperanto, but he never stuck with it long enough to get good.

"I'm more interested in What they were saying about family. we all know that Danny's secretive." Mikey said and Lester snorted.

"That's the understatement of the century." Nathan said.

Mikey ignored them and continued, "But is he really so secretive that he doesn't even know if he can consider his own parents family." Nathan and Lester squirmed uncomfortably at the thought. "You heard him. He said, 'I'll be", I'm guessing the next word was happy, 'if I can include my parents in my family, but you guys, and Jazz and Elle are my family, and I don't need anyone else'. He told Sam and Tucker they were his family, not his parents."

The nerds were quiet for a moment and then Nathan said, "What do you think his parents did to lose his respect? They used to be really close as far as I can remember."

"But they still look really close when Danny's parents come to school." Mikey pointed out.

"Th-they're not a-abusive, are they?" Lester asked quietly.

"No." Mikey stated, "I know they're not. Just look at Jazz, and those two can't even hurt a ghost." Mikey's statement relieved the tension that came with Lester's question, but it didn't answer the original one. Mikey considered for a moment what he knew about Danny and what he'd heard, and he had an idea. "Maybe we have it backwards." Mikey said.

"Backwards?" Nathan's eyes squinted trying to follow Mikey's thought train.

"Yeah," Mikey explained, "maybe instead of Danny hiding things from his parents because he doesn't consider them family is actually Danny not considering them family because he's hidden too much from them."

Nathan's eyes widened with understanding and Lester nodded as Nathan said, "That has to be it. Danny kept a secret so big he feels his parents don't know who he is anymore."

"It's just a theory." Mikey said.

Nathan scoffed, "Well you're theory is right, and we still don't know what Danny's secrets are." Then Nathan changed the topic, "Speaking of things we don't know about Danny, I still want to know where they learned Esperanto."

Lester looked thoughtful, but stayed silent. Mikey said, "Maybe they took a class?" It was a big maybe and Nathan raised an eyebrow at his friend.

"It's possible, but they also knew Latin." Nathan wasn't able to help the bit of awed respect that entered his voice as he said that.

"Maybe they learned it from ghosts." Lester finally said.

"What are you talking about?" Mikey asked the fellow geek.

Lester looked up to Mikey and Nathan like he'd had an epiphany, "Latin and Esperanto are dead languages, and Danny is friends with the dead. What if Latin and Esperanto are more common amongst ghosts, and they taught Danny, who taught Tucker and Sam?" I made perfect sense and the group of geeks looked at each other excited at the new information. They knew two things about Danny. Not only was he secretive and great at lying, but he also didn't consider his parents family. He was also trilingual, and he had been taught by ghosts. If he learned two languages from ghosts what else did he know? They looked to Danny to see him glanced worried at their group and then look away almost too quickly for them to see, but the did see it. Did that mean Danny had heard their conversation?

Danny was relaxed after talking to Sam and Tucker. They always knew how to help him, and they would always help him. He started up a less stressful conversation a little later about the plan for tomorrow. Tomorrow they were passing through the edge of Walker's lair, and most likely nothing would happen, but there was a chance for things to go wrong. They were just agreeing to give the group weapons the next morning when Danny heard something that made his blood run colder. "We've been using that language for years and none of us, and none of us are half as good as them. I didn't even understand most of what they were saying."

How could Danny have forgotten that Esperanto was used as a secret language by the nerds and geeks of Casper High? Of course Nathan, Mikey, and Lester would be able to understand them, but Mikey said he didn't understand most of it, and Danny remembered Tucker saying he was one of the people who was best at the language. Did that mean none of the nerds had heard anything too incriminating. Danny strained to hear more, ignoring the questions Sam and Tucker were asking. His friends got the point that he was focusing on something and they sat silently waiting for him to finish. Then he heard the conversation turn back to what he'd said about family and he paled.

Mikey came to the correct conclusion about why Danny didn't think of his parents when he thought of his family. Then Lester correctly guessed how he came to be trilingual. The nerds stopped talking and Danny turned to see their expressions. They all looked amazed in their discoveries, and then in unison they turned to face him. Danny turned around quickly, but he could tell it wasn't quick enough because his eyes met theirs briefly as he turned. By the time Danny turned back he was ashen, and his friends couldn't stand not knowing any longer.

"What is it already?" Sam asked while Tucker unconsciously nodded along.

Danny spoke quietly, "We forgot the geeks speak Esperanto. Thankfully they're not too fluent, but they heard enough to know I don't consider my parents family."

Tucker and Sam mimicked Danny and paled. Sam was already so white before hand that after her skin didn't look dissimilar to Walker. "What do they know?" Sam finally whispered.

Danny fought the urge to look over at the group of nerds and answered, "They know I'm secretive, and that I'm a pro at lying and misdirection. They know I don't consider Jack and Maddie family even though they are my parents, and they know I'm trilingual and probably learned from ghosts."

Tucker created a new document and listed the nerds and what they knew as Danny spoke. Then Danny stopped and Tucker whistled as he continued to fill out his list. He added some of the general information the entire school had been discussing over the week and the list became extensive. It was full of little fragments of the pieces of the puzzle. There weren't even full pieces, but there were clues to what the pieces might be. "Well at least if your secret is revealed here you have time for some crowd control."

"Crowd control?" Sam raised an eyebrow at his phrasing.

"You know with the whole Freak Show incident Danny was revealed to the entire world at once. This time we have time to explain a few things to people." Tucker elaborated on crowd control.

Danny snorted, "So what I'm just supposed to say please don't tell anyone and expect them to listen? I don't see that happening."

Sam smiled, "It worked pretty well with the A-list and the geeks when you were revealed on stage."

"If worst comes to worst you could always point out that you've can point out that you've saved the world," Tucker paused trying to count out how many times Danny had saved the world, but he only got to six before he remembered Vlad would rule the world if ever he gave up on hunting Danny, and he gave up settling on, "too many times to count."

"I'm not going to bribe them Tucker." Danny frowned at his friend.

"Sam, did I say blackmail? I didn't hear me say blackmail." Sam smirked at Tucker's sarcasm. The tech geek didn't wait for a response he just said, "Listen Danny, I'm not saying you should hold anything over their heads, but remind them of who you are. As selfish as some of these people are, no one would intentionally hurt the guy who saved their life over and over again."

Danny sighed and said, "Okay. You're right." It made sense. Even if everyone here learned who and what he was there was a good possibility that they'd agree to keep his secret anyway, but if even one of them didn't the consequences would be so great. First the news would spread, probably just around the school, but then around the entire town. Then someone, probably the GIW would come to test the rumors see if they were true, and this time when the ghost trackers went off around him he wouldn't be able to brush it off as a glitch. They'd discover what he was, and he'd be hunted in his own town and home. He'd probably dodge the various ghost hunters for some time, but eventually he'd be forced either into the ghost zone, or clockwork forbid, as a lab rat somewhere where he'd live out the rest of his life being tortured until it killed him.

Sam burst through Danny's ever so happy thoughts with a kiss. It was gentle like their first had been, but longer and lowly Sam deepened the kiss until they both heard, "Danny! When did this happen!?" Danny's mom was staring at them with a shocked expression. The rest of the class was either snickering at Danny getting interrupted, or Tucker's grateful expression.

Jack said, "Congratulation Danno! I always knew you and Sam would end up together."

Maddie continued, "I'm so happy you two are finally together, but when were you going to tell us?"

Danny by now was blushing pink. "We just got together Wednesday mom, and it's not like I made a conscious decision not to tell you, I just forgot." Danny's mom raised and eyebrow in her skepticism, and Danny defended, "I really did forget. This weeks been really weird, and that's saying something." The last part was muttered, and even those who heard it ignored it.

Maddie still seemed skeptical that Danny just forgot to tell them, but she was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. "It must have been some week to make you forget to tell us?" It was a statement, but the way she said it made it sound like a question.

Danny dodged the question like always and just said, "Yeah, well when a week starts with the school being taken hostage, and ends with your entire class plus your parents getting trapped in the Ghost Zone things, like telling you me and Sam admitted our feelings, slip your mind."

Tucker butted in to save his friend from more questions, "Speaking of busy we have a long day tomorrow, so we should sleep."

Danny nodded and then addressed the whole group, "Tucker's right. Tomorrow we're walking longer and farther than today, so you need your rest." Danny then turned to his parents and said, "Night mom, night dad."

"Good night, son!" Jack said loudly as Maddie smiled lovingly to Danny. Danny ignored the class and smiled back before he joined Sam and Tucker on two of the sofas at the far back of the room. Paulina and Kwan fell back into their mindless chatter, and Jack and Maddie started talking about ghosts again, but everyone else was becoming painfully aware that Danny didn't talk to his parents. All of Casper High knew of Danny and Sam's relationship the day it happened, but his own parents were just learning of it now. There was something wrong with that, and even Dash couldn't ignore it.

Danny walked over to the sofas with Sam and Tucker and flopped on one of the sofas in the far corner. Tucker took one that was directly across from his, and Sam curled into Danny's chest. Right at that moment, with Sam in his arms and Tucker by his side Danny felt safe for the first time in a long time, and sleep found him easily. Sam and Tucker followed the team leader's example, and soon after everyone in the room began to sleep.

 ** _AN: Wow I'm so sorry it took me so long to post. I got lazy and then had some internet issues... but enough excuses. I've been doing really well this month that I've been away. I know I worried some of you, and it's nice to know you guys care that much. Just so you know I've been really good. I got a job, started learning spanish and esperanto, and have been writing. I haven't written a whole lot more for this fan fiction, but I've got another couple chapters after this already written. Mostly I've been working on a different fanfic I've got mostly finished. It's a trip into Danny's mind fanfic, so I'm taking my time making sure it's complete before I post it, but you can look forward to that if you like those fanfics. Anyway, I'm really sorry for the wait, but I'm back now, so I just want to finish up by saying thanks for sticking around. :) Remember to R &R and thanks for reading!_**


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

Awareness was slow from a dead sleep. Danny had almost forgotten what it felt like. First he was aware that he was holding something warm against his body, and he hugged it closer. Then the slight cold chill on his side told him he wasn't under covers, and he realised he was still fully dressed. That wasn't unusual. Danny often fell asleep fighting ghosts, but then a troubling thought came to Danny. He couldn't remember fighting a ghost last night. Then he remembered that was because he was in the ghost zone. Danny's eyes shot wide open as the events of yesterday re-entered his mind.

The class was lead by his parents into the ghost zone where Technus had sabotaged their ship. They crashed and Danny admitted to having been to the ghost zone before, and that he had allies here. Everyone started figuring a couple little facts about him out, and they had ended up sleeping in the lair of the Ghost Writer. That's where he currently was, asleep on a sofa in the Ghost Writer's lair with Sam.

Danny blushed lightly as he realised where he was, and where Sam was. He'd never been so close to her before. Even when they'd kissed there was some distance someplace between them, but now every inch of Sam was pressed against Danny. He could feel her soft skin under his fingers against her arms and stomach. Her hips were slightly wider than his, and pressed against his. Her back was against his chest and he breathed into his hair. Danny stilled his breath to keep her asleep like this, if only a moment longer.

Sam'd woken up a while ago, and had been startled to be asleep in someones arms. She'd lived all her life in luxury and she was used to the space her bed provided her, so when she began to wake up the odd sensation of being held confused her. At first she tried to turn and see what was so warm, but then when she shifted the arms tightened around her. It only took a second to remember who they belonged to, and Sam tried her hardest not to wake Danny up further, but she could tell she was failing. Eventually she sensed his breathing change as if he was trying not to wake her up and she glanced over her shoulder to make sure.

Ice blue eyes connected with lavender ones as Sam looked up at Danny, and Danny smiled down at her. "Good morning, Danny." Sam said in a voice that was groggy with sleep.

"Morning, Sam." Danny replied in a similarly unused voice. At that moment both Sam and Danny decided that this was the way they always wanted to wake up. Danny sat up, making Sam flop back in the place he'd just been. Her hair fanned around her face in a messy halo, and her amethyst eyes shined in the flickering fire light of the Ghost Writers study. Her lips were pale lavender with the lightest touch of pink, the same pink that could only be seen in her skin when she blushed. From this angle Danny could clearly see the definition in her milky white skin. His eyes traced that skin, down her neck, her shoulders. Momentarily his view was blocked by a thin black t-shirt, but it had been pulled up in her sleep just enough to see her stomach. Then she was hidden again, but her jeans did a good job at hinting at what lay underneath.

Sam blushed under Danny's scrutiny, but let his eyes wander. She could feel his gaze almost like he was brushing along her skin with his fingers. Trailing his hand down her neck, across her breasts, and over her stomach. The lower his gaze got the hotter her skin felt, and her heart quickened until he reached her jeans and she felt ready to burst. It seemed she wasn't the only one, because before she knew it she was crushed under Danny. He used his knees to hold his weight off of her as he straddled her. One of his hands slid under her shirt and pulled her up by the waist to him, while his other hand caressed up her side and into her hair. Sam couldn't help but shiver with pleasure, and her movement made Danny moan.

They were so caught up in their activities that they failed to notice the other people starting to wake up. Star woke up first, because Star had never missed a morning run, and she gasped at what she saw. Despite having experience with how hard it was to wake up Paulina, Star woke up her "friend" anyway, and Paulina was grateful she did. It's not that they hadn't seen people making out before, but usually there was groping that was fishing for more. The way Danny held Sam was different. It was downright possessive in a way that made both cheerleaders jealous. Kwan woke up and Star immediately covered his mouth to stop his friendly good morning before she pointed out the happy couple to him. Kwan's eyes bugged out of his head and after a second he barely whispered, "Should we be watching this?" Both girls nodded their bobble heads as they practically drooled. They'd never be able to look at Fenton the same again, and Kwan had to admit he really lost something great when he failed to make a move on the goth. Then Danny moaned and the faces of both cheerleaders and the jock turned scarlet.

Tucker it seemed chose that exact moment to wake up because the next noise anyone heard was, "Oh, eww!" Danny and Sam didn't stop, but Sam did flip off Tucker before her hand went back into Danny's hair. Tucker looked away red faced and then he saw the blushing audience and started laughing. That finally got the attention of the couple.

Sam growled, "What's so funny, Foley?" Then she followed his finger to the A-list minus Dash. They were trying to look innocent, but the blush on their face's had yet to fade, and it sparked a red glow in Sam's own cheeks. Tucker was still laughing so Sam threw a deadly accurate pillow at his head, and he landed back against the sofa with a grunt.

Danny followed his girlfriend's line of vision and blushed with her when he spotted the fading blush on the A-lister's cheeks, but he surprised Sam by smirking and muttering, "I shouldn't."

"Shouldn't what?" Sam asked, still fighting the blush on her face.

Danny's eyes glinted mischieviously as he called out to the A-listers, "Enjoy the show?" Sam laughed aloud as the bright blush returned to the cheeks of the A-listers, and it didn't leave until everyone else was awake. _(AN: This is probably the farthest I'll ever take their actions in writing.)_

… **..**

Lester was the last person awake, and he only woke up because Nathan go tired of his snoring and punched him. Lester snorted awake just as Danny told his parents, "I'll be right back. I want to find where Lancer fell asleep." Danny walked out of the doors of the study and the group of people felt guilty that they were just realising the teacher was gone. A moment later Danny walked in with an exhausted looking English teacher and a cheerful green eyed ghost.

"-ou mind having him back?" The group caught the tail end of Danny's sentence.

"Of course not. I've not seen someone take so much joy in my collection in a long time." The Ghost Writer answered.

Mr. Lancer looked dead on his feet, and yet extremely excited at the same time, like a kid at Disneyland an hour from closing. "I wish I could stay longer. I've never seen something so awe inspiring as that unpublished manuscript by Shakespeare."

Danny rolled his eyes and said, "I want to thank you for your hospitality, Ghost Writer. I was glad to get some sleep for today's journey."

Curious, Ghost Writer asked, "And where, may I ask, is today's journey taking you?"

Danny looked grim as he answered, "That path out there will lead me to Pandora's, but there is a half mile stretch that passes through Walker's territory."

The Ghost Writer proved it was possible for a ghost to pale when he heard Danny say that. "I don't envy you that trip. I live next door to that prick and he still locked me up for loitering. Loitering! Can you believe that jerk!?"

Danny smirked at a joke no one but he, Sam, Tucker, and the ghost understood, "Trust me, I've had more than my fair share of Walker."

"More like Walker's had his fair share of you." The Writer quipped making Danny snort. "Any way I've just had an idea for my newest manuscript, so I'll trust you to show yourselves out."

Danny nodded and assured the ghost he they would see themselves out before he turned to the group. "Okay. Everyone awake?" He looked around and saw that everyone was indeed awake before he said, "Today is going to be the most difficult day we have for two reasons. A, it's the longest day of travel, and B, we're going to cross through the very edge of a dangerous ghost's territory."

"What ghost? Walker?" Mikey asked.

"Yes." Danny answered. "Walker is the warden of the Ghost Zone's prison. He enjoys locking people up, and it's common for him to make up new rules just so he can lock you up, which he will do for a ridiculous amount of time."

Dash snorted, "Like your cool enough to break a rule Fenton."

Sam and Tucker burst into laughter and Danny glared at them, but the effect was lost do to his own smile. Then he replied to Dash, "You're 100% right as always. Fantastic deduction skills Dash." Danny gained control of himself and continued, "As I was saying Walker is one of the more dangerous ghosts, and we are traveling through his territory, so we need a plan."

"Do you have one?" Lester asked groggily. He had just woken up when Danny went to fetch their teacher.

Danny nodded and looked to Tucker, who stepped forward. "Danny's said it before and I'm saying it again now, we kind of expected something like this to happen when we went into the ghost zone, so we packed. What Danny didn't tell you was that we packed a lot more than food. Danny, Sam, and I have in our bags enough ecto weapons for everyone. We also have a few Fenton Phones which are like walkie talkies the size of bluetooths, and filter out spectral noise."

"When did you get this?" Maddie asked in an accusing tone.

Tucker chuckled nervously as he was confronted by his best friend's mother. Thankfully Danny stepped forward again and took his mother's attention. "There is only one place to get weaponry like this. We stole it from the vault, and had this trip gone as you planned we would have put everything back with no one the wiser."

Danny stepped back again and Tucker continued before Danny's mom could begin scolding them. "Danny, Sam, and I will be going through the group giving weapons to everyone with brief instructions on how to use them, and we will be handing out five Fenton Phones. One Fenton Phone will go to each Star, Mikey, Mrs. Fenton, and Mr. Lancer. The Fenton Phones will remain off unless we get separated."

"Why are we even listening to you geeks?" Dash suddenly challenged, "I get following Fenton a little, just because he's been here before, but I'm not following a wimp like you Foley."

Tucker could barely hold back the laughter that tried to erupt from Dash's sudden challenge and he said, "Danny's been in here the most, but Sam and I have been in here our fair share." He looked around at the shocked expressions of the group and said, "What you didn't seriously think Danny made ghostly friends and then didn't introduce me and Sam, did you?"

Danny raised a finger and pointed out, "Actually you guys still haven't met the captain of Pandora's guard. Guy's got some hero worship thing going on."

"Shut up, Danny! I was making a point here." Tucker joked, but then seriously he said, "Dash you are following not only Danny, but also Sam and myself because if you don't you'll die here."

"Is that a threat, nerd!?" Dash said dangerously.

"Dashiel, that is no way to speak to your fellow classmates!" Mr. Lancer scolded, but everyone ignored him.

"It's not a threat Dash." Tucker said calmly, "It's the truth, or do you think we're giving you weapons for the fun of it." That shut Dash up and Tucker continued with more seriousness than his class thought him capable, "I'm not trying to scare you guys, but you need to know the severity of the danger we will be in today. When we reach Walker's border we will begin to run, and we will continue to run until we cross completely through his territory. It's likely that we'll make it through without ever alerting Walker to our presence, but there is a very real chance that he could see us. This is the reason we will give you weapons." Tucker looked each person in their eyes in turn to make sure they paid attention before he continued, "If Walker figures out we are there we will be hunted. Under his rules human items, or real world items, are not allowed in the ghost zone. That means he can arrest you for existing, and the sentence is a thousand years standard or more if he's in a bad mood."

Tucker stopped talking to let them soak in all the information. It seemed that it was just dawning on the group how much potential danger they were in. Sure they'd been afraid to be lost in an unknown place, but now they realised there were creatures here who wanted to hurt them. Tucker had made them aware that they were swimming with sharks, and they were definitely on the menu. Mikey surprised everyone except Danny and Tucker by being the first to ask a question, "S-so what's the plan if the ghost captures us?"

Everyone, even Jack and Maddie looked to Danny for the plan. Danny obliged and stepped forward to say, "If we are captured there are a few possibilities. Walker is most likely to take everyone, but in the off chance that some people are left behind we will turn on the Fenton Phones and figure out leaders in each group based on a chain of command. Right now I think it's agreed that I, Sam, and Tuck are in charge, right?" Everyone nodded, even the A-list and Danny's parents, so Danny continued, "However in the case that the three of us are captured my parents and Mr. Lancer are in charge, and if they are captured then Star and Mikey will be in charge." Danny saw everyone looking uncomfortable with the conversation so he assured them, "Like I said this is the least likely scenario. If Walker spots us he's most likely to take all of us and lock us up in the same cell. If he locks us in the same cell it will be up to you guys to listen very carefully to Sam, Tucker, and I because the prison can be a dangerous place, but we'll break out fine as long as you listen and are prepared to act when we ask."

Mr. Lancer said weakly, "You sound like you've done this before, Danny."

Danny grimaced and said, "Um, well I have." He turned to his tech geek friend and asked, "How many years have I racked up, Tuck?"

Tucker typed away and pulled up Danny's stats, "You've got 44,000 years for various activities including possession of real world items, five counts, rioting, three counts, leading a prison break, four counts, and existing."

Danny's classmates, teacher, and parents were stunned. Danny was a criminal who had been in prison at least four times, and probably more. Danny ignored the gaping people and said, "So the plan is pretty simple for now. All you need to know now is what each of you will be given weapon wise. Oh and mom and dad, I have weapons for you too, just to give you the weapons I've found are most versatile." Danny turned to his girlfriend. "Sam, would you do the honors."

Sam smiled and placed herself in front of the slightly dazed group. "Okay I'm going to show you a weapon and explain what it does, and then I'll call the names of the people who get that weapon. Not everyone will have the same weapons, but the weapons you will be handed have been chosen for you, and you'll all have more than one." Sam riffled through her backpack first and pulled out wrist rays. "Okay these just look like ordinary bracelets until activated, like this." Sam slapped one on her wrist and pressed the button that unfolded the laser. "They are medium powered lasers that remain inconspicuous when you don't need them."

"Oh I recognise those." Paulina said cheerfully. "You're always wearing one aren't you?"

Sam didn't miss the chance to glare at the air head and said, "Yes I often am wearing one of these myself. I'm going to give you guys this one, but I don't want you to activate it unless we're captured. This will most likely be overlooked if they take our weapons." Then Sam called names, "Okay so everyone except Mr. and Mrs. Fenton are getting one of these." Jack looked put out so she said, "Don't worry we packed the most powerful weapon just for you, Mr. Fenton." Jack perked up and Sam pulled out the next weapon to pass out. "This one is the Fenton Ray. This is a very simple aim fire weapon with a safety above the trigger. This is the weapons you will if we are spotted before we get into Walker's prison. Everyone except Paulina and Star gets one of these." Everyone walked up and retrieved their next gun. "Another gun is these Lipstick Blasters. You open them up exactly like a lipstick and when they are fully rolled up a little button will appear. These are weak, but super sensitive and easy to aim. Simply activate it, then point and click. Paulina, Star, Nathan, Lester, Mikey, Mr. Lancer, and Mr. Fenton will get one of these." Sam handed them out and said, "Mr. Fenton the last gun is for you. I don't think I need to tell you how it works." Jack looked like a five year old on christmas morning as he watched Sam riffle through Danny's bag and pull out the Ghost Bazooka. Jack squealed like a little girl at the sight. Maddie had forbidden him from using the weapon because of the property damage it caused when he missed, but in the prison it wouldn't matter if he blew up anything extra.

Thoroughly amused by Jack's excitement Danny said, "I thought this could prove a good opportunity for you to use that, since there is way less stuff for you to blow up here. Besides what's the point of making a gun you're never going to use." Jack didn't care that he only had three guns the bazooka made him happy, and he was grinning wider that he had the whole trip so far.

Sam pulled out a thermos and said, "This is a very important, and arguably the most important weapon, and it requires a little more thought and reflexes to use. This is the Fenton Thermos, and yes I know it looks like a soup thermos, but in reality it is the most useful weapon. If you point the thermos at a weak ghost, take off the cap, fire it at a ghost, and then cap it, you will capture that ghost. This stops the ghosts from regaining their energy until you release them, so they can't attack again, but this weapon is very strategic. If a ghost is too strong I can escape. It has to be weakened before it can be captured, so I'm not giving this weapon to everyone." Sam nodded to herself that that was everything and then called names. "Nathan, Mikey, Lester, Mr. Lancer, Mrs. Fenton, and Dash will get one of these each, and the last thing we've already gone over is the Fenton Phones. There is a switch to turn it on and three channels to turn it to. We'll be using channel A, so Star, Mikey, Mr. Lancer, and Mrs. Fenton these are for you." That was the last of the equipment, and Sam's backpack was now empty.

Danny took a second to readjust everything they were carrying. He had Sam carry the first aid, Danny kept the water, and Tucker had the food. Everyone was exploring their weapons and figuring out how to carry them. It wasn't long before everyone was set to go, and Danny lead them back out to the path.

For the most part everyone was quiet, too much inside their own heads to talk, but for some that wasn't the case. The A-listers for one, Danny was discovering that they all kind of acted as one mind sharing their thoughts in their little bubbles of gossiping, and right now they were all discussing why the trio was so well prepared, and how wimpy Fenton could be a wanted criminal. It just didn't add up for them. Not that it added up for anyone, but the nerds were definitely more open to the idea that Danny wasn't a wimp. The nerds and Mr. Lancer was silent, the later because he was thinking about his latest read the unpublished Shakespearean play. Jack and Maddie stayed quiet for a lot longer than Danny expected, but eventually they became more vocal.

After about half an hour Jack and Maddie started to mumble and whisper to each other their thoughts on everything they had learned about their son. It was amazing, when they thought about the massive amount of new information, that it all happened in under 24 hours. First they learned Danny had been to the ghost zone many times. Then he easily took charge of the entire group including the three adults in a way where no one questioned his authority. Then last night they'd met one of his ghostly allies who was kind to them and let them into his home or lair as they called it. The most amazing part, however was after they entered the ghost's lair. Danny became a whole different person.

Firstly Danny automatically assumed command even though at that point his role was loosely undefined up to that point. He stopped Jack and Maddie from shooting the ghost and then he negotiated a reasonable trade with the ghost to get them a safe place to stay for the night. Also the ghost seemed to have such a high level of respect for Danny. He even went as far as to ask Danny's permission to take Mr. Lancer out of the room. Then they had a whole conversation in what Maddie swore was Latin, and that was before they even went to bed.

Just minutes ago Danny, Sam, and Tucker had instructed everyone on what they were going to do today, and they'd handed out weapons they'd stolen. They'd told everyone that Danny was a wanted criminal who'd been arrested and broken out of prison multiple times. It seemed that they didn't even know their baby boy any more. When had he become so secretive, and why?

Jack and Maddie were discussing all of that when Jack decided to ask Danny a clarifying question, "Danno, were you speaking Latin back there?"

"Yeah." Danny answered.

"Where did you learn it son?" Jack asked excitedly.

Danny smiled at his dad's enthusiasm and decided to answer truthfully. "Frostbite, my ghost friend who is going to get us home, taught me. After all where better to learn a dead language than from a dead person."

In Jack's excitement of learning more about ghosts he forgot to ask more about the secrets Danny was keeping. Jack contemplated, "That's so cool! I wonder if there's anything else ghosts could teach?"

"Of course there is, Mr. Fenton." Tucker said, "A, there's more than one dead language, and besides ghosts have a lot of skills."

"Like what?" Jack said.

"Like Ember gave Youngblood guitar lessons, and Comet is a fantastic Biochemist. Nix is teaching Tucker everything he knows about mechanics, and I can't count the subjects Danny and Frostbite have touched on." Sam said.

Maddie hadn't forgotten that they were supposed to be getting more information about Danny and raised an eyebrow and said, "I'm starting to think you three don't just spend too much time in the Ghost Zone, but that you prefer the Ghost Zone."

Danny surprised everyone by simply saying, "Why shouldn't I?" The question caught everyone off guard, and not just because Danny was admitting he did prefer the ghost zone, but because it was a very good question. Everyone, save Danny's parents, knew Danny was incessantly bullied. He got terrible grades, and it was starting to dawn on most that Danny's parents had to be at least neglectful to not notice everything Danny had been doing.

Danny's parents were the only people to answer the question. "There are plenty of reasons honey. You can't survive in the Ghost Zone. It doesn't have the natural resources for a human. And of course if you're spending time here then it's taking away time from things like your education, which you need if you want to become an astronaut." That point caused Danny to sigh sadly and Sam smiled sympathetically to her boyfriend and pulled him in a comforting side hug. Unfortunately the interaction didn't go unnoticed by Maddie who asked, "What's wrong Danny?"

Tucker shook his head sadly and Sam's face formed a scowl, but Danny's was blank when he said, "Nothing is wrong mom." In truth Danny didn't like to be reminded of his childhood dream to become an astronaut. Danny had long ago been forced to give up his dream. His grades were too poor, and the ghost wouldn't let up long enough for him to feel comfortable leaving Amity for a week, let alone the time it would take to go to college, and enter the astronaut program. So Danny let it go, but it still made him sad sometimes.

Nathan, Mikey, and Lester were beginning to be able to tell when Danny was lying out right. You couldn't tell from Danny's expression, but his friends gave him sympathetic looks whenever he lied, like he was being forced to lie. This was definitely one of those moments. Sam look angry with the elder Fentons and Tucker just looked sad for Danny, but all Maddie had said was that Danny needed to study to be an astronaut. Why was that sad?

There was a pause in the conversation as Maddie waited for Danny to say more, but when he didn't she continued the herself. "Besides that Ghosts are nothing more than a mimicry of sentient life." She didn't notice Danny flinch, but all the nerds, the secret trio, half the A-list, and Mr. Lancer did. "I have to admit after seeing the ghost we just stayed with there is the very real possibility that not all ghosts are evil, but that doesn't mean they're sentient beings. They are simply ectoplasmic manifestations of post human consciousness." Danny flinched again, and this time everyone except the Fentons noticed. "So my question is, why would you prefer the Ghost Zone to Earth?"  
Everyone outside the Fentons now knew that Danny was here because he was ignored or bullied by almost everyone he knew on Earth, where as here he was treated better. Danny answered his mom as diplomatically and truthfully as possible, "I have plenty of responsibilities that tie me to Earth mom, but I have more friends in the ghost zone. I hope by the end of this trip I can convince you that ghosts are in fact sentient and emotional beings." Danny added the second sentence to draw attention away from him personally. It of course worked and Maddie dissolved into lecture mode scolding Danny on the laws of ghosts based on the theorems of sound research.

The class was impressed by Danny's answer. They knew it was the truth, and yet he stated the truth in a way that didn't really answer Maddie's question, and immediately he distracted her completely by challenging her theory. Mr. Lancer was the most impressed. He didn't have as much sleep as he would have liked, but that was shutting down the usually incessant chatter of his brain and allowing him to really focus on what was going on around him. In freshman year Danny had shown just as much if not more potential than his sister, but he seemed to suddenly lose his brilliance. It wasn't that he stopped trying exactly, though he most assuredly could have been doing more, it was that he just started getting low grades. One day A's the next day C's and D's, but now Danny seemed just as smart as ever, but if that was the case why wasn't he doing better in school. The kid could learn Latin for God's sake, but not mid-century romanticism?

Maddie eventually stopped her rant and Jack began asking more questions about the ghost zone. Whether ghosts were eil or not was not Jack's biggest concern at the moment. He was more interested in learning everything his son knew. What were the purple doors? Why was everything floating? What created the paths? How many ghosts did Danny know? That last question Danny danced around saying that he knew many ghosts, but he didn't really answer how many. The class wavered between listening to Danny's descriptions of everything in the ghost zone. Lester thought it would be super cool it you could somehow map the natural portals and use them to time travel, Tucker snorted and disagreed, but gave no reasons.

Jack was about to ask another question about it there was naturally occurring plants in the ghost zone, but Danny spoke first. Danny stopped walking and signaled everyone else to do the same before he said, "Alright everyone. This is the edge of Walker's territory. From this point and for the next half mile we will be running. I want you to have your weapons out, and stay with the group." Danny looked each person in their eyes and then said, "Are you ready?" Everyone nodded so Danny said, "Let's go."


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

The group started to run with Danny at the head. Danny made sure to keep his pace at a speed the nerds could manage, but he also didn't make it easy on them. Nathan was the most physically fit out of the nerds, and he was becoming a little winded after a minute of running. By the point where Danny estimated the halfway mark the nerds were huffing and puffing for air, but Danny didn't slow, and to their credit neither did the nerds. They were almost all the way through and Mr. Lancer was now huffing and puffing right along side the nerds. Danny could see the end of the territory and he almost called out that they only had a little ways to go when he heard Dash take the safety off his weapon and call, "Incoming!"

Seconds after Dash's warning Danny spun around and saw an ectoblast about to hit him. Danny rolled out of the way just in time as his ghost sense went off. Danny pounced right back up into a battle ready position and fired back with his own wrist ray. "Keep going!" Danny ordered the group onward as Sam, Tuck, and his parents fell in line next to him firing their own weapons at the ghost. The class did as it was told, most didn't even think to stop and help, but they were forced to stop by a wall of armed police ghosts that were hovering on the path between them and the border.

Then Walker appeared. The ghost was bone white with a face like a skull that he shadowed with a cowboy hat, and a body like a bodybuilder. Walker lowered himself in front of Danny, and then the ghost looked around at all the humans and said, "My my, if I'm not mistaken you've rung up another four thousand years by bringing this group here, and each member of this group has racked up eleven thousand years each." Walker looked Danny in the eyes and said, "Looks like my prison is going to be very full."

"Leave them out of this Walker!" Danny warned, "You'll regret arresting humans under my protection." Danny's eyes were narrowed dangerously, and Walker paused for a second considering the threat, but then he just laughed. he had the upper hand and he knew it.

"What are you going to do, Punk? You're secrets have rendered you powerless to stop me in front of your humans." Walker grinned maliciously as he said, "And now, you're on my turf." It was as if that sentence was the signal for action because each ghost surrounding the group threw gas grenades. Nathan and Dash were able to squeeze off an ecto blast each, and two ghosts went down. Sam and Tucker took out almost two dozen together, and Maddie took out another three, but then the sleeping gas kicked in and the humans were out like a light. Danny was gone only half a second after the rest, but it was enough time for him to take out ten guards with a few ecto blasts. In just a few seconds the humans and the halfa halved the ghosts that surrounded them, but it did nothing to prevent their capture.

Aquamarine eyes fluttered open and then squeezed closed in pain as the girl felt to soreness in her body. Star dragged her delicate hands through her hair pushing it back from her face as she stretched up into a sitting position. For a moment her placement on the concrete floor confused her, but then she saw her classmates sprawled around her like they'd been chucked in with little or no care, and she remembered with a gasp where they were.

The lightest noise of a gasp woke up Sam who was always on constant alert listening for Danny or her mom sneaking into her bedroom, but this wasn't her bedroom. Sam shot up in fear at not knowing where she was, and Star twirled around startled by Sam's sudden movement. The scared face of her classmate brought their arrest back to the front of Sam's mind, and the raven haired girl became less panicked and more worried. She ignored Star for now as she stood to her feet and did a head count. Everyone but Danny was in the cell, and Sam felt her panic begin to rise again with the knowledge that Danny was alone in this place.

Star watched Sam shoot up from a dead slumber and look around the room in panic. Then Sam's amazing purple eyes connected with Star's blue and she seemed to calm, if only a little. The other girl hopped lightly to her feet, and Star slowly followed as she watched Sam take a head count. Sam bit her lip unconsciously and recounted. It seemed to Star that the recount had done nothing to ease Sam who was breathing in quick shallow gasps like she'd run a marathon. Star only hesitated for a moment before she lightly placed a hand on Sam's shoulder and asked, "Are you okay?" Star didn't know what was wrong, but if Sam continued hyperventilating like that she was going to pass out again.

Sam jumped out of her skin at the touch of the blond A-lister, but then the question filtered through and Sam forced herself to calm down. Panicking did nothing. Sam took ten deep breaths and answered in as calm a voice as she could, "Walker took Danny."

Star frowned and did her own head count, which confirmed what Sam said. "Why would the ghost separate him from the rest of us? Does he know Danny's the leader?"

Sam was impressed that Star's question was actually intelligent, but then again Sam always under estimated the A-listers intelligence. "He does know Danny's the leader of our group, but that isn't why he was separated. Walker has a particularly bad grudge against Danny, and I'm afraid that he has something planned for him."

The cheerleader was anything but cheerful at the news that Danny was taken away by a ghost because the ghost wanted to enact some special punishment on the boy. Even though Danny was a F-lister he was still human, and though Star didn't like to think about it she realised that he would be the reason anyone lived to see Earth again. Star's thoughts were interrupted by a groan of someone waking up. Star looked around the room, but was confused to see no one waking up in the cell with her, but then Sam shouted, "Danny!" and Star followed the goths line of sight to the cell across from their own.

Directly across from the class's cell was another cell with a single occupant, Danny. The first thing Star noticed was the odd position Danny was in. He was just waking up leaning against the wall with his hands up at either side of his body raised like he was on a cross, and his head was flat against the wall even though his body was arched out from there. It didn't take long for Star to see the reason Danny was positioned like that. His hands and neck were cuffed to the wall by glowing green metal braces. His legs were free, and he wasted no time placing them under him on the floor before he was even fully awake. Across from him on the other wall was an assortment of tools, and their purpose wasn't to hard to guess. He groaned again and asked in a clear voice, "Sam?"

Danny opened his eyes and tried to turn to look at Sam, but he just jerked against the metal cuffs. Danny winced at the pain. He seemed to be bruised all over, and as he looked up to the green glowing cuffs on his wrists he remembered what happened. "Sam is the class okay?" Danny was immediately concerned for the class in the ghost prison.

Sam sighed. If Danny was still conscious enough to ask about the class that meant he wasn't too bad yet. "Yeah, Danny." Sam said with an exasperated tone. "Walker just knocked us out and threw us in a cage. I'm more concerned about you."

Danny turned his head, making sure it was only his head this time, and smiled to Sam. The bruise on the side of his face did nothing at all to calm Sam, even when Danny said, "I'm fine. Just a little roughed up. Nothing too bad." Danny saw Sam's worried expression, and said, "Don't worry Sam. I wasn't even awake. Walker just kicked me a few times while I was unconscious."  
Star was horrified at what she was seeing. Danny was strapped to a wall covered in horrific bruises, and he was saying it was nothing. She had thought it had been horrible when Dash beat up Danny so bad for turning down Paulina, but Dash could never be so violent as to cause marks like that. Sam Growled in response to Danny brushing off his injuries, and Star didn't blame her. "Walker's going to pay for hurting you." Sam hissed the words so venomously that for a moment Star understood Paulina's fear that Sam was a witch that would hex her. Right in that moment Sam seemed down right scary, and it was all too easy to imagine the girl chanting a powerful dark spell to torment those she disliked.

Danny's voice was serious as he said, "Now is not the time Sam. We need to check that everyone's okay. Can you wake everyone up and make sure they're not injured?"

Sam rolled her eyes. She loved Danny for his hero complex, but sometimes she hated it. Sam agreed anyway, "Okay Danny."

"Thanks." Danny said as Sam got to work waking people up. Sam woke Tucker first, and set him on checking people with her. Star helped by waking up the A-listers and checking that they were fine. Tucker woke up the nerds and Sam finally woke up the Fentons.

Jack shot straight up with a shout of, "Ghost!", but everyone was already awake so it didn't matter much. Maddie's first objective like Sam was to find Danny, and like Sam she began to panic once she noticed he was missing. Danny sighed when he noticed his mom beginning to panic. Danny had been up till now largely unnoticed, but now he would have to deal with calming everyone when they saw him like this. Before him mom could panic too much Danny called, "Sam, Tucker, do the usual escape checks."

The entire group, except Sam and Tucker spun to face Danny once they realized where he was. Reactions varied from horrified and shocked gasps to worried shouts of, "Danny!". Sam and Tucker simply checked all surfaces of the cell yelling back to Danny as they went.

"Wall is solid." Sam shouted.

Tucker confirmed, "So are the bars."

Tucker then hoisted Sam up on his shoulders and Sam pounded on the solid ceiling, "That's solid too." Then she hopped down from the ceiling and landed on the floor and frowned, "The floor is good too. He really thought of everything. It's at the very least completely human proof."

"Danny, sweety, are you okay!?" Maddie called out to her chained son.

No one caught Sam, Tucker, or Danny as they all rolled their eyes, and they all thought, "standard question". Danny looked his mom in the eye and said, "I'll be fine, but I want you to remember no matter what happens, I brought this on myself."

Danny had guessed his mother's guilty feeling correctly and she said, "But you would have never been in here if we hadn't -"

"Hadn't what mom?" Danny cut her off short, "Agreed to the field trip, been oblivious that I was taking my own trips the Ghost Zone, built the portal, been ghost hunters." Danny looked her right in the eye and said, "Every choice we make is our own, and where it takes us is our own fault, and this," Danny jerked his arm against the brace holding it, "is my fault." Maddie opened her mouth to argue again, but Danny cut her off and said, "We don't have much time. I'm surprised they're not back yet." Then Danny addressed everyone, "Guys check if you have any weapons. If anyone has anything raise your hand, but don't activate it."

Everyone but Maddie and Jack raised their hands and Sam said, "They got everything but the Fenton Phones and the Wrist Rays, so everyone besides your parents have a weapon."

Danny nodded and said, "Sam and Tucker know what to do. There are a few options here, but we have to wait for the opportunity to arise. No one is to activate their Wrist Rays until Sam, Tucker, or I says so. Also keep the Fenton Phones off unless you get separated. If you get separated it is the responsibility of those people with the phones to find and help any others they can. Is that clear?"

Everyone nodded and Star weakly asked, "D-danny what's going to happen to you?" Everyone held their breath waiting impatiently for the answer while at the same time hoping it never came.

Danny smiled simply and said, "Hopefully nothing, but more than likely I'm going to be beaten up pretty bad here." Danny said it simply with a sad smile, but there was no hint of fear. It was too much for Maddie who started leaking small tears from the corners of her eyes. Most of the others looked equally horrified and helpless, but Dash also looked accusing.

"How do you do that?" Dash demanded. Danny gave Dash a questioning look and Dash said, "How can you just sacrifice yourself like that. You know you're likely going to get very hurt, that you could die, and yet you're calm. It's just like when that guy told everyone to shut up in the auditorium and you asked if his gun was even loaded." Tucker and Sam facepalmed as Jack and Maddie gasped in shock once more. Danny had been carefully skirting around the events of that day since it happened, and Dash just blurted out Danny's reckless move.

Danny sighed and said, "It's not going to do me any good to panic Dash, and this way I can best prepare everyone before I'm in no shape to prepare anyone." Danny pretended to be a little scared. He gulped and flickered his eyes around, and Maddie and Jack quickly got on reassuring their son, but Sam and Tucker knew it was an act because Danny's eyes never reached them, so they didn't do anything. The inaction of Sam and Tucker tipped off Nathan, Mikey, and Lester that Danny was pretending to be scared, as if they weren't amazed enough.

Eventually Danny convinced his parents he was fine even though he still looked scared and they stopped their meaningless reassurances. Mr. Lancer was sorry that the reassurances stopped, but at the same time he was glad. The reassurances were probably helping Danny, if only a little, but the broken helpless promises from Danny's parents that he would be alright was making Mr. Lancer almost ill with dread. Mr. Lancer cursed himself for agreeing to go on this field trip, for thinking it was a good idea at all. Yeah they'd learned a lot about Danny, but Mr. Lancer never wanted to learn more about his most mysterious student if the was the price.

The silence stretched on and on for what seemed like hours and though people were growing tired no one could go to sleep because of the fear and dread curling in their stomachs. It was horrible and long, but it was worse when it was broken. A loud buzz was followed by a louder clang and everyone jumped. Dash, Lester, and Kwan walked forward to peer at what made the noise, but everyone else backed up. Then the sound of heavy boots walking towards them was heard and the three boys joined the rest of the group. That left only Sam and Tucker still in the middle of the cell. They'd walked forward and were facing the bars when a massive white ghost in a cowboy hat came into view. The Ghost smirked at them and then turned to Danny. "Look at them ghost boy. Your two little soldiers are brave, but the rest of the lot, I don't know how you surround yourself with such cowardice."

Danny retorted, "They aren't cowards Walker. You're face is just horrifying. You know in all the times I've passed through your prison I don't think I've ever seen a mirror, is that because they crack under your reflection."

Walker smirked, "Mirrors I don't crack, but I crack something all right. You'll be one of those things."

Danny snorted, "Like you could Walker."

Walker gazed evenly at Danny and then turned away. "We'll both see what you sound like when you break in just a moment, halfa, but right now it looks like I've got some new prisoners to induct." Walker looked to the group of frightened humans and said, "For those of you who don't know, I am Walker. I will serve as your judge, executioner, jury, executioner, warden, and if necessary your executioner. You have each been sentenced to eleven thousand years for the charges of being human inside the Ghost Zone, being in possession of human world contraband, and three counts of harboring fugitives. Enjoy your stay," Walker said sarcastically and then he smiled and added, "and enjoy the show."

Sam and Tucker knew they had the best shot of keeping Walker away from the humans by keeping quiet and keeping his attention off of them, but they were both shaking with held back fury. It was everything Sam could do not to launch herself bodily at towards Walker while cursing his ectoplasmic remains to hell.

The ghosts footsteps echoed across the shot space, and his keys rattled as he unlocked Danny's cell. The cell door didn't make a sound as it swung open in admittance to it's owner, and Danny watched Walker with an expression that could be called bored. The ebony haired boy yawned just in case his point wasn't coming across yet and Walker chucked, "I'd say that mouth is going to get you in trouble one day, but you're here already."

"Already? How many years have you been trying to capture me again?" Danny asked.

Walker's eyes hardened making his smile seem more insane as he dragged his hands over one of the tools on the wall opposite Danny. "I guess I'll just have to take the time out of your hide." Walker suddenly spun around and lashed a whip across Danny's chest. Danny hissed, but didn't give Walker the satisfaction of making him scream.

"No!" Maddie screamed at the same time Jack yelled, "Danny!", but Walker ignored them both and lashed Danny a second, third, and fourth time. Paulina and Star turned away and were hugging each other against the wall farthest from the metal bars. The girls shook with tears, for once in all the time the group could remember the girls weren't worried about what their tears would do to their makeup or skin. No one cared about such trivial things when faced with their classmate, son, student, and friend being whipped in front of them.

Walker hummed in contemplation and said, "You've built up quite the pain tolerance. Looks like I'll need to get more creative." Walker's sick smile widened as he tossed the whip to the side.

"Leave my baby alone! I'm the ghost hunter! Take me instead! Please!" Maddie begged, ignoring Jack who was shoving her behind him to protect her.

Walker laughed and said to the group. "I've got who I want exactly where I want him." Walker turned back to the wall of weapons and said, "Now let's try out my new toy." Walker's eyes were alight with excitement that scared even Danny. Walker pulled a remote control from the wall and flicked something on. There was the faint buzz of electricity, but no one could see what it was coming from. Then Walker turned the dial on the remote, and then he pressed a button.

Electricity poured out of two prongs on Danny's back. Danny felt his skin burn and his nerves freeze painfully, and it was all he could do not to scream. When it stopped Danny didn't know if it had been a second or an hour, but he was glad it was over. He wasn't going to let Walker know how much that hurt though. Danny took a few stabilizing breaths and then smirked and said, "I thought you said you were going to be more creative, Walker. I can barely think of a ghost that's not electrocuted me at some point. It's practically a monthly ritual." Danny's words came out in breathless pants, but they still managed to ooze confidence and condescension. Walker didn't like confidence and condescension.

Without a word walker turned the dial as high as it would go as people cried out to stop he pressed the button. This time Danny couldn't stop the scream that tore from his lips. He could feel the lightning traveling along his skin, and through his nerves and veins. It froze his mind in agony as he could feel himself melting from the inside out. His legs jerked out from under him so he was being held up by his neck and wrists. It was choking him, and just as he felt like he was going to pass out the electricity stopped. Walker didn't give him a moment to rest. A fist slammed into his stomach, lifting him and pushing the rest of the air out of his lungs. Danny gasped and scrambled to get a leg under him so he could breath. He managed a half breath before another fist slammed into his side with a sickening crack. For a while Danny was occupied with nothing more or less than trying to breath through the hits landing mostly on his torso. Each hit was one step closer to death, and at the first break Danny knew if he was anyone else he would be completely dead by now.

Breathing hurt. Inhaling came in shudders that wracked his entire body in fire, and exhaling came out in coughs that were worse. Still Danny gulped the air greedily as he awkwardly propped himself against the wall so he wasn't hanging by his neck. In Danny's blurring vision he saw Walker smiling wider that he'd ever seen. Walker seemed to just be enjoying the view, breathing it in, "and what a view it must be", Danny thought. He was too tired to even talk. His entire frame was shaking, he was spattered with blood, and he probably smelled like cooked meat, but he was still standing.

Walker looked down at the remote to the taser against Danny's back and it took a second for Danny to realise Walker was talking. "-worked very well. Now I know that it will work on your little copy, Danielle, when I finally get my hands on her." Walker turned back to the wall of tools as he said, "She's not racked up quite as many years as you, but I think just being related to you is enough reason to-"

Walker said Elle's name and it was like a switch was flipped inside Danny. People could hurt him all they wanted, but threatening someone in his protection, a little girl, his little sister, that was going to far. Danny wasn't sure if it was a conscious decision, but he flexed his arms and dragged his body up by his wrists. Then his legs struck out like a viper. One hit the base of Walker's head, and the other hit the base of his spine. The force behind the move was brutal and Walker was imbedded two inches into the ecto ranium walls. Luck it seemed was finally on Danny's side. As Walker slid down the wall his hand brushed a button and the cuffs on his wrists and neck released. Walker gripped his head dazed, not realizing Danny was free, and Danny wasted no time. He grabbed Walker by the ghost's oversized neck and threw him across the room to the open braces which slammed shut on Walker's wrists and neck like they had been on Danny.

Everything was silent except for the sobbing of Danny's classmates and Danny's harsh breathing. "Danielle is off limits Walker. Even you should know better than to threaten my baby sister." Walker's eyes widened in fear as he came out of his daze and realized what had happened, not that he knew what happened. One second he was taunting the broken human form of Phantom, and now he was locked in Phantom's place, a prisoner in his own prison. Unbidden images of Walker's death rose before him, but he shoved those roughly back and snarled.

Danny took his time walking easily to the wall with the Walker shaped dent and picked up the taser remote from the floor where it had fallen. He turned so Walker could see him analize the little piece of plastic and said, "Electricity truly is a marvel. It's pure energy harnessed and put to work. Without it this remote is just a chunk of plastic, and while I'm sure i could cause you pain with the piece of plastic it's a simpler matter to press the button." Danny looked Walker in the eye and watched the ghost sweat translucent green. Walker could see no hesitance or mercy in the hero's ice cold eyes, and the ghost knew he'd gone too far. Phantom was right everyone knew not to threaten Danielle. Danny brushed his thumb over the button, and Walker saw with fear in his eyes that Phantom hadn't changed the dial from the highest voltage. "It's just the simple matter of pressing a little button to cause you pain." Then Danny surprised everyone but Sam and Tucker by setting down the remote, and he said, "For all the weapons you have displayed here you don't have one that will cause the pain I want to give you, psychological. You've gone against your core Walker, your obsession. You broke a rule."

"No!" Walker screamed in terror, "I've never broken a rule!"

Danny switched to Latin and said, " _Section seven, paragraph two-hundred eighty-four: No spectral being shall use their knowledge of another's death against them. I died by electrocution Walker._ " The class was horrified, and yet glad, when Walker screamed and started spitting profanities and babbling about rules. Danny had broken the ghost like the ghost had tried to break him, but Danny wasn't done. He continued in English, "Walker there is a new system of law. You're behind the times, and your rules are unjust and outdated because of it. It was impossible for you not to eventually break a law, but if you drag yourself out of this your laws can be refined so no one can accidentally break them." It was a lifeline tossed to the despicable ghost. Danny knew Walker would most likely go insane, but if Walker adjusted his purpose to streamline his rules then maybe Walker could become a help instead of a hindrance in the Ghost Zone and out. Then Danny punched Walker in the face knocking the ghost out and he took the keys, which he used to unlock his door and then the door of the class's cell.

 _AN: I got really dark. I don't know why, but I did. So I hope you like dark stuff, because the next chapters a bit dark too. Thanks for reading, and R &R. :)_


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

Jack and Maddie sobbed into each other as they watched helplessly. Danny was being lashed across the chest, and it was only starting. Kwan started sobbing when Danny began to seize against the wall where he was electrocuted. It was just so brutal. He hated helping Dash bully the nerds and losers of Casper, but Dash was never this cruel. Mikey passed out from fear, and Nathan and Lester clutched his body while selfishly hoping to join him in unconsciousness. Dash was amazed and horrified that Danny hadn't screamed yet, and it only made it that much worse when he finally did. Dash finally broke down. Tears flowed from his eyes as he curled into a ball clutching his ears trying desperately to block out the earsplitting cries to the boy who he had though he had tortured, but Dash couldn't have even imagined something like this. The screaming ended and the ghost refused to let up. All of the group was either looking away or wishing they could as the pale ghost hit Danny over and over, breaking him literally. Tucker stood resolute letting no tears fall even when Danny stopped screaming because he couldn't anymore. Sam needed him right now, and Tucker could cry later, but not yet. Right now Danny needed him to take care of Sam. Sam couldn't stop crying. She was beyond the point of fighting and now she would give anything to make it stop, to stop him from hurting Danny.

Walker finally stopped hitting Danny's broken dangling body, but then he turned back to his wall of tools and Sam whimpered burying her head into Tucker's chest. Then she heard something that made her despair more than she thought she was possible. Walker was planning on going after Dani. A brief image of the little girl who looked so much like Danny cuffed to the wall bleeding entered her mind and Sam weakly shoved it back. There was nothing she could do, but shiver in Tucker's arms. Then there was a loud thump and a crack that made everyone jump and turn to watch again. Danny had somehow, Sam and Tucker knew how, kicked the ghost in the back so hard that he made an indent in the opposite wall. To any who didn't know what it felt like, they would have described that moment to feel like time slowing to a still.

In slow motion they watched as Walker fell, Danny was released, and Walker imprisoned. Their hearts seemed to tear with the split emotions of relief that it was over and sorrow for Danny. Then Danny made a show of threatening the ghost, and everyone else thought to themselves that Walker deserved worse that what he'd done to Danny. They didn't even know what worse was, but they wished it on him, and then Danny supplied the worse. Danny spoke a few short sentences in Latin, and it was enough to drive the ghost to insanity. The class didn't feel any sympathy for the babbling and screaming ghost, but only thought that the ghost was let off easy. Then Danny punched the ghost out and took the keys to the jail, unlocking his own cell and then theirs. Finally he collapsed.

Tucker and Sam were the first to take action. Sam rushed to Danny and rolled him flat onto his back. He was bleeding heavily and there was a good sized pool of blood forming beneath him. Then Maddie and Jack tried to rush forward to hug their son. They were absolutely hysterical by now, and didn't even think about Danny's broken bones. Thankfully Tucker saw them coming and blocked them. They were fighting to get past him, but Dash came to his senses and Kwan followed, and together the three boys pushed the Fenton parents away. Once Danny was no longer in immediate danger of being crushed by his over exuberant parents Tucker said, "Sam what's the report."

"Three broken ribs, a dislocated shoulder, a broken wrist, multiple lacerations, a nasty burn on his back, and a whole lot of bruising. He'll be fine, but he's not waking up for a while." Sam looked at Tucker and said, "We need the first aid kit."

"It's likely in Walker's office, that's on the way out of here." Tucker remembered from the maps he kept on his PDAs.

Sam quickly formed a plan and started doling out orders. "Okay Tucker use your jacket to make a gurney. Dash, I need you and Kwan to carry Danny with more care than you've ever done anything in your life. If you so much as bump him against a wall I will kill you, got it." Dash and Kwan nodded while Tucker got to work with the gurney. "Dash and Kwan hand your weapons over to the Fentons." Dash and Kwan did as they were told too traumatised to question the orders, and Sam turned to the entire group. "Everybody listen up. Tucker and I are going to be leading you out of here, but we're making a pit stop to grab the weapons, food, water, and especially the first aid that was taken when we were captured. There are a few things you'll need to remember. One we are the ghosts in the Ghost Zone which means we can normally walk through walls, and even ghosts if you really concentrate. Two screaming does nothing but attract attention, so unless you need the attention of me or Tucker, don't scream. Three we're going to be running faster than most of you have ever run in your life, and we're not slowing down for anyone. Keep up. Everyone clear on that." Most of the group gave some form of acknowledgement that they heard her.

"Dash, Kwan, pick him up gently." Tucker commanded and the jocks listened. Once they had Danny secured Tucker took the keys that Danny had dropped, activated his Wrist Ray, and started running down the hall. The class was fast on Tucker's heels and Sam took up the back. Despite the speed Dash and Kwan were able to keep Danny mostly steady in the gurney Tucker made, but Danny wore a deep frown even in his sleep that told of his pain. It made the jocks sad and they both silently swore never to hurt the nerd again even if it meant damaging their reputation.

Tucker eyed the halls as they passed. That was the one that lead to the cafeteria, the next three were cell blocks, and then the one on the right was Walker's office. Tucker turned down the correct hallway without slowing down. He knew that if there was a problem with anyone Sam would deal with it or tell him. That's why she was in the back, so he didn't have to worry about that. Just around the corner, and they were there. Tucker was surprised they hadn't run into any guard when they ran, and when he looked back at Sam he could see the same worry in her eyes. Silently Sam and Tucker communicated across the heads of the wary group, and they quickly made a plan. "Mr. Fenton, Nathan," Tucker commanded, "You're coming with me to get our gear." Said ghost hunter and nerd followed Tucker with no problems into the office.

The office wasn't huge in size. There was a large desk in the center of the room, and some filing cabinets to the left, and to the right there was a room labeled contraband. Tucker walked through the door without bothering to unlock it, and the others reluctantly followed him. The room looked like a massive dark warehouse that wouldn't even come close to fitting within the confines of the jail, but then again the ghost zone didn't always like to follow the laws of physics, so Tucker took no notice. All Tucker cared about was the pile of bags near the entrance of the room. "Mr. Fenton, grab the weapons, as many as you can carry. Nathan, hold this and this." Tucker handed Nathan a pile of bags that belonged to the class, and then he picked up the food, water, and first aid bags himself. "Let's go." Tucker said, once again leading them out toward the rest of the group. When they got there it wasn't a pretty sight.

The group was hugging the walls of the hallway and peering out into the main hall terrified, because there were dozens of ghosts streaming past the entree to the hall. It seemed like the reason for the ghosts being gone before was that they were taking lunch in the cafeteria, but now they were coming back and the halls were more crowded than ever. Sam whispered to everyone, "Guys back up to the office." Unfortunately she didn't speak quiet enough to not be heard, and one of the guards called out the alarm and started shooting at the group.

Sam, Tucker, and Maddie jumped to the front lines taking down ghosts with ease while dodging return fire. It didn't take long for the prisoners to see that there was a disturbance weakening security and they were happy to take their chances at escape. The ghosts began firing at the guard and running in every direction. Jack handed everyone their weapons back and Sam took command, "Everyone form two rings around Danny. Adults and Paulina and Star in the center ring. Everyone else is in the outer ring. Shoot guards not prisoners. Tucker lead us out."

Everyone did as they were told and the group loosely organized into an effective formation, and then Tucker lead them into battle. Shots of green flew through the air leaving scorched walls and downed guards. Paulina, Star, and Mr. Lancer were basically useless. They made Jack Fenton look like a good shot, but then again he was doing surprisingly well. His shots seemed more wild and unaimed than anyones, but he more often than not hit a ghost. Maddie of course was taking down plenty of ghosts, but the nerds were doing better than her. It turned out all the video games Mikey, Nathan, and Lester had played over the years had finally come in handy, because their aim was only out matched by Sam and Tucker. The members of Team Phantom were giving cover fire for the class when they saw any ghost preparing to shoot the group. At the center Dash and Kwan were running as fast as they could carrying Danny, who was still knocked out, and though the jocks felt endangered no ectoblast ever came close to them.

The Ghost Zone's tourists were just starting to feel hopeful that they would make it out of this completely unscathed when they rounded the last corner before the exit and were forced to a halt. Row after row of armed ghost guards were lined up in front of them in military fashion. One stepped forward and yelled into a megaphone, "Everyone back to your cells. Anyone still here in ten seconds will be shot down and given over to the warden for punishment."

Around the class ghost prisoners shifted nervously, and a few made to get back to their cells and avoid Walker at all costs. Sam knew that the prisoners around them would give their group a chance to escape, but they were running, and she didn't know what to do. Dash and Kwan called out in alarm and before Sam could ask what had happened Danny walked past Sam to the head of all the ghosts. He stopped where every ghost could see him, and the few prisoners that were running stopped to watch. "The warden will not be giving out punishments. He unwittingly went against his obsession and I made him aware of his error. Let us pass." Danny called the words out to the guard and they nervously started whispering and shifting.

"Liar!" One shouted in denial.

"You'll find him babbling in the cell where he was keeping me. He made a sever error in judgement and now he is paying the ultimate price." Danny repeated, "Let us pass or I will stop holding back." Danny's back was to his class and the prisoners, and on his back they could clearly see a charred angry red skin where the electrocution had burned a hole in his shirt. The mark looked painful and some of the prisoners grimaced at the thought of what could have made that mark, but the guards view was worse. Danny's black t-shirt had become mere shreds showing patches of blood soaked black and blue skin. His jeans were mostly intact, but they were mostly a dark black brown color from Danny's blood. The way Danny moved showed that he probably had multiple broken ribs, and who knew what other internal injuries, but that wasn't what was so terrifying.

The boy before them known as the halfa, the ghost child, and Pariah's Bane kept his expression completely bank as he threatened to stop holding back, and they believed him. There was something in his eyes that made the guards disregard the fact that Danny's humans were behind him, and that Phantom never aimed to harm ghosts beyond what it took to incapacitate them. This boy had just driven a ghost to insanity, and he was more than willing to hurt them if they got in the way. Wordlessly and as one the guards scattered to the edges of the room, and Danny lead his class, his friends, his teacher, and his parents out of the prison. It wasn't until Danny reached the path outside that the other prisoners even moved to follow.

The group of humans were shocked to silence that Danny was leading them again so soon after being tortured, and they were more shocked that the ghosts let them pass because Danny told them to. There was so much about this trip that didn't make sense and ninety percent of it seemed to revolve around Danny, and the rest was saved for Danny's friends. Gone were the weak geeks of Casper High, and in their place there were three complete strangers. Only two people recognized anything about Danny. Jack and Maddie recognized some of Danny's behavior, but it wasn't because he was their son. It was because they had both been raised by soldiers.

Jack and Maddie were military brats, and when their parents came back from the war they came back different. They were guarded and secretive, more observant and cautious, and what they recognized most was the tolerance for pain. Danny was careful and commanding despite his pain, and Sam and Tucker were level headed after seeing their best friend tortured. It was like they'd seen it all before and expected to see it again, and it made the parents extremely afraid for their little boy, their young man.

Once Danny was out the prison doors Sam and Tucker placed themselves directly at his sides and gently held him up as he walked. Danny gritted his teeth in clear pain, and as soon as they were out of Walker's territory Sam and Tucker forced Danny to stop. Nathan handed Sam the first aid kit, and Tucker placed his hands on the back on Danny's shoulders balancing the halfa. Then Sam said, "I'm going to have to take the shirt off Danny."

None but Sam and Tucker understood why Danny's tired eyes widened in fear at Sam's sentence. "N-no, you can't!" Danny sounded slightly frantic, but his voice was weak from screaming and his own exhaustion.

Tucker leaned forward and said quietly in Esperanto, " _They've already seen too much, Danny, and it will do no harm that hasn't already been done for them to see._ "

Danny's eyes hardened with resignation as he let out a shuddering breath. Then, just to comfort himself, he said, "I'll always have my friends and my sisters." He said it so quietly even Sam and Tucker right next to him had trouble hearing, but they did hear.

"Always." Tucker agreed and Sam gently kissed Danny's cheek. Then Sam took a knife out of the first aid and started cutting off Danny's shirt. The group watched uneasily from a few feet away as the black cloth was cut. The only word to describe the group as a whole was traumatized, and they just didn't know what to do. What they'd just watched most of them didn't know how to explain in words. Torture didn't seem to cover it, but the definition was the least of their concerns. No, they were more concerned with how to act and what to do. It was obvious that Danny needed help, and yet the way Sam and Tucker were handling it was better than any of them could hope, even Maddie who was a trained EMP.

That brought up a whole new set of questions for those who realised that Sam and Tucker were too good. Maddie was trained as an EMP, and while she knew to do everything Sam and Tucker were doing, they thought of it first, like it was routine. It was the type of skill that only came with practice, but that meant that someone had been hurt enough to require them to practice those skills. More scary than that was the realization that they were most likely practicing on Danny, considering the amount of tolerance Danny seemed to have for pain. What had the youngest Fenton been through?

Two questions were formed, but instead of answers they only got more questions when the black shirt was fully discarded. Tucker gently moved around to Danny's front, and Sam rubbed a salve on the black and red skin that was prominent on Danny's spine. Even though the rest of his skin was clear of wounds it showed some of the pain Danny had been through. His back was littered with every type of scar imaginable. Burns seemed to be the most prominent, but there were knife and shrapnel scars. More disturbing still were the odd chunks missing, like they'd been sliced off with a knife, and the one small crater in the small of his back that marked the path of a bullet.

Dash couldn't help but gasp and blurt, "You were shot!" The class turned to stare at him rather than continue to watch as Sam tended Danny's burn. Dash seemed a little flustered at the sudden attention and rose to defend himself. "I watched Sam stitch the bullet hole closed, and then when I tried to ask Danny about it later he said it never happened." All but Jack and Maddie's eyes lit up with realization. Dash had been trying to see Danny's bullet wound when he tried to pull up Danny's shirt in the cafeteria, but then Danny gave a story about Phantom and another ghost and everyone believed him over Dash. Mr. Lancer felt like a fool. He had also seen Sam stitching up Danny, but he was all to happy to believe that the events never happened. Mr. Lancer had prefered to believe Danny's lie.

Danny's voice cut through their thoughts like butter. "Now you know why I lied."

"No we don't!" Mikey exclaimed suddenly. "We don't know why you lie, but you know what, I can't think of a time in the last year where I've spoken to you directly that you haven't lied. Why?"

"I lied about the shooting because I didn't want my parents or anyone else to see my scars." Danny said softly. He was starting to feel like he was going to pass out again.

"Lay him down on the shirt." Sam ordered Tucker, she was lost in her own world when tending to Danny, and was barely taking notice of the conversation around her. Tucker did as she asked, but opposite to Sam he was barely noticing how they were treating Danny's wounds as he listened to the conversation. The topic worried Tucker immensely.

"That's enough." Tucker said firmly. "The last thing Danny needs is integrated. Danny's been through enough today, so leave him be."

Maddie looked with tears in her eyes as Sam washed away the blood from Danny's chest revealing lean muscle and more scars. Her baby was so hurt, and it wasn't the first time, and he still wouldn't tell them what caused it. Why? Why didn't he trust them? What was he afraid of? They would always love him, but maybe Danny didn't know that for some reason. "Danny?" Maddie whispered in her insecurity. Danny didn't look at her, but he nodded to let her know he was listening. "Me and your father will always love you. No matter what you choose to do with you life."

Danny looked directly into her eyes, and Maddie felt as if he were searching her soul. What ever he found there she didn't know, but he said, "I know, mom." Sam grimaced, and while the reaction could have come from the wounds she was seeing, Tucker's own expression didn't have the same explanation. That was how Mikey, Nathan, and Lester knew Danny was lying. Meaning he didn't know if his parents would always love him. Now that the nerds knew how to read Danny's lies they were starting to wish they could go back to being oblivious.

Sam finished wrapping Danny's chest, and he was by now not dissimilar to a mummy. The wrappings around his chest stomach, wrists, and neck almost made up for his lack of shirt, but for the first time in a long time Danny was wearing something skin tight that wasn't a hazmat suit. "You should be healed up in no time." Sam said. Most of the students took her comment as a show of rare optimism from the goth, when in fact she was being completely literal. Danny's burn had halved in size since they left the cell, and the whip marks weren't deep enough to need stitches and were already scabbing over. The broken bones would take longer to heal, but Danny's neck was only a little red. Sam looked Danny over one more time and said, "Sleep. I'll wake you up in twenty minutes."

Danny was too tired to argue. Tucker set an alarm, and Danny was asleep before Sam finished saying I'll wake you up. "Don't you think he should sleep longer, Sam?" Mr. Lancer surprised everyone by using Sam's chosen name, but said girl shrugged it off.

"Danny's been through worse, and continued with less sleep. We're not safe yet, and we need to get moving sooner than later." Sam said.

"Besides Danny needs to eat and drink to regain his energy. He can't do that sleeping." Tucker added while Sam nodded.

"Do all of you get hurt like this?" Kwan rarely showed concern, but he just needed to know how many possibly injured people he'd helped bully.

Sam and Tucker shared a look and then Tucker said, "You know how Danny is about taking all the hits. Sam and I have a few scars, but not even a quarter as many as Danny, and Danny feels guilty about every one of ours." Kwan did know how Danny liked to take all the hits. For as long as Dash had been bullying kids, Danny had been distracting the jock from the other nerds. Always, if Danny saw Dash beating up another kid, he'd yell at Dash and provoke the bigger boy into chasing Danny instead.

Maddie smiled and knelt down next to Danny to pet his hair and said, "My little hero." No one knew why Sam and Tucker found that funny and started laughing. The group simply added it to the ever growing list of things they didn't understand about the trio, and probably never would.

…

An hour later Danny was once again leading everyone along the path, and he was no longer moving like he was in pain. In Walker's prison he'd looked like it was painful to breath let alone move, but now he walked side by side with Sam and Tucker with his back straight. The only reason, besides the visible bandages, anyone would be able to tell that he was injured was because he stopped himself from laughing when Sam and Tucker started taunting each other about who was better at DOOM. The argument was pointless seeing as every member of the trio knew Sam was easily the best player, but the simple conversation cause the trio to be the source of everyone else's amazement once again.

Danny and Sam walked down the path hand in hand with Tucker faithfully beside them, and they were all joking around. They looked exactly like they did at school. It couldn't have been an hour ago when most of the students were certain Danny would die, but now they were acting as if nothing had happened. Those with fewer brain cells like Paulina and Kwan were dumbfounded by the turnaround in mood. They thought the trio might be legitimately insane. Most everyone else had realized that if the trio made such a quick turnaround now, who's to say they hadn't done it before. Danny always looked as tired as he did right now, and he always wore such baggy clothes no one could tell if he had bandages or even a six pack underneath. Some of the smarter people in the group, Lester, had applied the same logic to Sam and Tucker.

Sam in Freshmen year was almost never seen in a shirt that covered her stomach. She'd worn black leggings and plaid mini skirts even in the coldest weather. Now though she skinny tank tops and black skinny jeans. Though the outfits still clearly showed off her figure they never came close to revealing as much skin, and it made Lester wonder if that skin had changed.

Tucker didn't change as much as Sam. His clothes had always been thick and baggy, but somehow he'd refined his look. Instead of a barf yellow turtle neck with a red beret Tucker wore a baggy day glow yellow long sleeve t-shirt and army green cargo pants. It was the smallest change, and anyone who wasn't looking for it wouldn't notice, but Tucker's new outfit seemed designed more for convenience than style. He wasn't wearing turtle neck sweaters, because they discouraged physical activity. And his old pants had been thick and baggy, but his new ones looked to be made to hold supplies. Lester had already seen the cargo pants put to use for that purpose.

Each member of the secret trio hadn't changed at all since they were thought of as losers, but that didn't mean they weren't different. It was like the veil was lifted from everyone's eyes and they were finally able to see the changes that had happened long ago. The trio was completely comfortable with how they had changed. Everyone else was viewing these differences for the first time, and none of them knew when the changes had happened. Still this wasn't the trio the class remembered growing up with, and no one knew who these strangers were.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

After a few hours of walking in contemplative silence Sam signalled the group to stop. Unquestioningly the group of confused and tired humans stopped and watched. Tucker was pointing to a floating door up ahead that was near the path, and the class and the Fentons only saw Danny nod before he raced forward and leapt off the path. The halfa's feet landed gracefully on the edge of the door frame and his hands attached to the door handle to stop himself from falling into the endless green abbiss.

Danny twisted the doorknob and swung his weight forward to open the lair. The lair was odd. It looked like a courtroom mixed with a movie theater. There were rows and rows of cushioned bench seats. All the seats faced away from the entrance of the lair towards a massive screen that was off in the absence of the ghost it belonged to. The room also had a very business like feel that was helped by the color scheme, or lack thereof, because everything was blindingly white. The halfa walked around a little bit and flew around the edges of the room, but once he realised there were no traps he dropped back to the floor and opened up the door. "It's all clear, Tuck."

The class watched quietly as Danny disappeared into the doorway and Maddie asked, "What's he doing?" She'd long given up any form of authority, and she knew that whatever Danny was doing she wasn't going to stop him, but he was still her injured baby boy.

Sam answered, "This is an abandoned lair. There are a bunch of them floating around. Danny's just checking if this one is safe for us to sleep in."

Mr. Lancer was startled by Sam's answer. He understood that they needed somewhere safe to sleep, but surely Sam or Tucker would have been the better choices to check if the place was safe at the moment. "Why didn't you or Tucker check?" Mr. Lancer asked Sam, "I would have thought you would have had Danny rest."

Tucker didn't look up from his PDA when he said, "Out of the three of us, Danny has the best reflexes. Even injured as he is there is very little chance that there is anything in there that poses a real threat to Danny."

Just then Danny's head appeared from the doorway and he gave the all clear. "Is there anything to help us get in?" Tucker asked.

Danny shook his head and said, "You'll just have to help me pull people in."

"Wait, you want us to jump to that door!? Not all of us are pretending to be total wimps. Some of us actually are." Nathan said. The A-lister's chuckled at the geeks expense and Sam cracked a smile. Tucker just sighed as Danny answered.

"Yes you are going to have to jump, but thankfully some of us were pretending to be total wimps." Danny smirked and said, "I'll catch you and pull you the rest of the way."

Nathan seemed slightly more at ease. For some reason he believed Danny when he said he would catch him. Maybe it was the way Danny said it, so matter of factly, or maybe it was the feeling of protection that Danny radiated, but Nathan knew Danny would catch him. The geek's thoughts were cut short when Tucker jumped forward exactly like Danny had just moments before, but instead of grabbing the door handle like Danny had, Tucker grabbed Danny's hand and let the obsidian haired boy pull him inside. "Alright who's next?" Danny asked the group.

Surprisingly Paulina was the first to walk forward. She was still in Danny's sneakers, but she wasn't used to this much walking and was more than ready to get off her feet. If it meant she had to jump a small gap then that's what she would do. Paulina took a little running start and jumped. Her feet didn't quite make it all the way to the edge of the door like Danny and Tucker's had, but it didn't matter. Danny and Tucker grabbed her out of the air and pulled her the last few inches forward and the cheerleader landed smoothly on the white carpet of the ghost lair. Star was the next up, never far behind her best friend, and she landed just as smoothly as Paulina even though she was in heeled boots. Kwan grinned at the challenging leap, but he managed to jump just as perfectly as Danny had. Danny caught the jocks hand like he had with Tucker, and pulled him in.

Dash was next. All the other A-listers were inside already, and he was the only A-lister left outside, but something was holding him back. The nerds, their teacher, and the Fentons were behind him waiting for him to jump up after his friends, but he'd seen Kwan go and Kwan had needed Danny's help to get in. All Dash knew was he needed to get in, but he couldn't get in without Danny's help, and if he was Danny he'd let himself fall into the endless abyss of the ghost zone.

Dash hesitated too long, and Tucker and Danny looked at the blond jock in confusion, but then Danny's eyes lit up in understanding and he said, "We don't have the greatest past Dash, but I wouldn't drop you in the Ghost Zone." Danny's cold blue eyes looked into Dash's own blue eyes and he said, "I'll catch you even if you wouldn't catch me."

Dash had the strangest feeling of vertigo as he both felt relieved and guilty from Danny's sentence. On one hand he knew Danny was telling the truth. Danny was too good a person to let Dash fall to his death. Danny was successful in reassuring Dash that he was safe, but he also posed the uncomfortable question in Dash's head, "Would Dash do the same in Danny's position?" Dash knew the answer, and so did Danny. If Dash was the only person who could lead his entire class and his parents to safety, he'd lead them, but he'd push the losers too hard, and he'd make sure they knew they owed him when they got back. Then if he was tortured and beaten, he wouldn't escape like Danny had. He wouldn't have saved the rest of the class, and it the rest of the class somehow escaped with him he'd probably have everyone do everything for him. He wouldn't ever be standing in a doorway helping his class jump up to safety, forget pulling up the nerds. If Dash and Danny switched positions right now, Dash would let Danny fall to his death before he pulled up someone he considered a loser.

That wasn't who Danny was though. Danny would pull Dash up, and when Dash finally followed Kwan and jumped, Danny caught his hand, the hand that had so often forced him into lockers, and Danny pulled his bully into the ghost's lair. Dash's eyes were dark with troubled thoughts as he stepped over to his waiting friends. Paulina was already chattering to Star and Kwan about how tired she was and that her skin would never recover from the abuse it was taking in this environment. Dash followed Star's example and tuned out his off and on girlfriend. The two blonds sat side by side and watched Danny and Tucker pull up the rest of the group one by one.

The blond cheerleader next to Dash was in just as much turmoil as the other quiet A-lister. "I'm leaving the A-list." Her sentence was spoken softly, but it stopped all conversation within the A-list. That was saying something, because it wasn't easy to shut Paulina up.

"What?" Dash asked shocked. In all his memory he couldn't remember anyone saying that sentence. People were kicked from the A-list, they didn't just leave.

Star seemed startled by Dash's question and said, "What do you mean what?" Silently she was wondering if she'd accidentally spoken aloud.

Paulina confirmed her fears by saying, "You said you're leaving the A-list." She laughed and said, "That's ridiculous! You obviously meant to say something else, right?" Paulina's voice sounded slightly doubtful at the end of her sentence and the A-lister's hadn't heard her so unsure since Danny had turned her down.

Star smiled at the head cheerleader sadly and said, "I didn't mean to say that out loud, but I meant it." She looked back to where Danny was pulling up Sam, who was the last person, and frowned. "The requirements to be in the A-list are money, good looks, and you can't be nice to losers." Star's aqua eyes flickered to her friends and they could see the turmoil within them. "I can't fill the last requirement anymore, because I'm never being mean to someone I think is a geek again."

The group was silent for a moment, but Dash surprised everyone more than even Star had by saying, "You don't have to leave the A-list Star."

"The rules are clear Dash." Paulina countered. She didn't want to lose her closest friend, but Star didn't want to pick on losers. Paulina didn't necessarily want to pick on the trio after this, but she was fine with playing with the rest of them.

"Then maybe the rules need to change, Polly." Dash said.

Paulina gasped, "What do you mean? We can't just change the rules!"

Dash looked the latina in the eye and said, "You and I are the king and queen of Casper. Why can't we?" Paulina opened her mouth to argue, but nothing came out, because what Dash said made sense. She and he were the rulers of the school and the A-list. Granted the A-list didn't make changes without consulting at least two other members besides the King and Queen, but Star and Kwan were here, so they could change anything right now. "That's what I thought." Dash said smugly after a moment of Paulina's silence.

"Fine. This is now an official A-list meeting. What do you want to change, Dash?" Paulina said falling into the bossy political voice she'd adopted for official A-list meetings.

Star rolled her eyes upon hearing the meeting voice, but she too was curious about Dash's proposal. Dash said, "Money and looks are still important, but I don't think we should torment losers, geeks, and nerds anymore."

"Really?" Every other A-lister spoke at the same time. Paulina and Star completely matched each other's shocked tones of voice, but Kwan sounded more hopeful than anything. It wasn't a huge secret that Kwan was almost a pacifist.

"Am I the only one who has watched my favorite punching bag and his not-really-loser friends do a complete one-eighty?" Dash asked rhetorically. "They were just pretending to be weak, and what would have happened if Danny had decided he was done? He could have taken me on any time he wanted. He probably could have put me in the hospital, and I would have deserved it."

Star and Paulina were silent in thought, but Kwan said, "Yeah."

"Yeah?" Dash raised an eyebrow at his friend's comment.

"Well, yeah. I mean, Danny's been taking your beatings for years, so yeah you'd deserve it." Kwan shrugged a little nervously.

Dash sighed, "Yeah." He agreed with his friend.

"It's not like he wasn't asking for it." Paulina said, "All those times he got between you and someone else."

Dash thought back to all the times he'd been picking on some little wimp when Fenton would try and tell him to stop. It got really irritating, and at the time all he could think was that maybe if he turned on the raven haired wannabe hero then Danny would stop trying to tell Dash what to do. Danny never did stop though, and somewhere Dash's purpose became muddled and he just started targeting Danny. It was like Danny had goaded Dash into making Danny his primary target, but that didn't make sense. Star was just as confused as Dash and said, "It's almost like he made himself Dash's favorite punching bag on purpose." Dash flinched slightly at hearing his activities stated so bluntly, but he knew Star was right. Danny was Dash's favorite punching bag.

Kwan spoke almost to low to hear, but the rest of the A-listers heard anyway. "He did."

"Who did?" Dash asked, "What? Are you saying Danny wanted me to wail on him?" Dash looked more confused than ever, and more than a little disbelieving. "That's crazy. Nobody's that stupid."

Kwan grimaced and said, "Danny is. I don't know why, but everytime he saw you picking on someone he'd distract you until you stopped picking on the other kid and turned on him instead. He just did it until you started looking for him before you picked on anyone else."

Once again the A-listers were silent in their thoughts. They were the only silent group in the room. Everyone else was talking amongst themselves, but the A-list for once was being completely serious. "You know," Dash said eventually, "I always thought of Danny as some sort of wannabe hero, and I thought I was doing him a favor teaching him not to be a hero. Guess the lessons were counter productive, because all along he's been protecting others from me." Dash sighed. This entire conversation was making him realize what a jerk he really was, and it was making him angry and depressed. There was no one to blame but himself.

"It's not your fault." Star tried to cheer him up a little. "You were just picking on a nerd. You didn't know he was actually some sort of hero."

"Yes I did. I knew he had a hero complex, and I tried to beat it out of him. I knew what I was doing was wrong, but no one could stop me so I did it anyway. It's completely my fault. Even Kwan would have stopped long ago if I didn't push him to help me." Dash countered immediately.

Paulina groaned loudly, "Urhg! You can't fix the past, so let's fix the rules now! No more bullying the losers! There, done! We've fixed it!"

Star smiled, both in amusement at her friend's exclamation and in happiness that she didn't have to leave the A-list. Kwan smiled wider than any of the other's had seen in a long while. He never had to bully another person again! It was one of his dreams come true. Dash smiled at his beautiful almost-girlfriend. She wasn't the smartest person, but she was a natural leader the way she simplified decisions and pulled her followers to do whatever she said. She was the reason the A-list would never break up. She was wrong on one thing though. "I wouldn't say we've fixed everything, yet, but it's a good start." Dash said with a small grin.

"What else can we do?" Paulina asked her favorite jock.

Dash frowned, "I don't really know, but Danny and his friends have saved our lives by leading us out of that prison. We owe 'em big."

Star hummed in thought and hesitantly said, "I think I want to propose a new rule in place of the old one." Her three friends turned to her to listen. "A new rule to help the losers. We've got the most status of anyone our age in our entire town. Surely we can do something."

Star knew that they were important in the town. They held power in the school, and sometimes even beyond the school. They should be able to do something. Dash and Paulina were 100% with her. They were the popular kids, and they could do anything they set their mind to. The problem was they'd never set their mind to help anyone before, and they were finding it harder than they thought. Kwan was the person to actually come up with the new rule, because he had thought about this topic before. "That's simple. The new rule is we make up excuses for the nerds. The teachers believe anything we say, so if a geek is in trouble we can just say it's not their fault." The idea was simple, and it probably wouldn't happen all that often, because most of the losers stayed out of trouble, but there were times that the four teens could imagine that rule helping more than just Danny, Sam, and Tucker.

"OMG! That's perfect, Kwan!" Paulina exclaimed happily. "You're so smart."

"So those are the new rules?" Star asked. It was almost too good to be true.

Dash was smiling broadly now. It was the biggest grin they'd seen him wear that wasn't because of some plot against a loser. It looked almost foreign on his face, and yet they knew it was a good thing. "The new requirements of the A-list are, you have to have money, you have to look good, and you have to help geeks and nerds out of trouble when you see it."

…..

Danny had helped the A-listers up into the room first, and they claimed two benches in the dead center of the room. The nerds planted themselves farthest from the door near the screen, and the teacher sat directly behind them. Jack and Maddie had come in last just before Sam, and Jack was already asleep on the left side of the room. As usual, when Sam was finally up, the trio placed themselves as far away from everyone else as they could be. Then Danny dropped into the bench in the far right, back of the room.

Danny couldn't stop the grunt of pain that escaped him when he sat down. His ribs were healing slowly, but he was low on energy, so it was slower than normal. He didn't have to say anything before a ration was shoved in his hands by Sam. "Thanks." They were silent for a while. Just enjoying each other's company and the first peace they'd really had since they entered the Ghost Zone. Sure there were other times that they'd been resting, but for once no one was watching them. Maddie and Mr. Lancer were lost in thought, and Jack was asleep. The A-lister's and he nerds were talking amongst themselves, and no one was watching the trio.

The trio wasn't letting this opportunity go to waste, and for the first time since they entered the ghost zone they were completely resting. They were safe, and it there were no more iment dangers between them and the Pandora's Palace. Danny ate his granola bar and drank down a full bottle of water. It wasn't much, but he could already feel his healing picking back up. None of the trio was going to keep watch. It wasn't necessary in an abandoned lair, so they quickly settled in to sleep. Danny was almost asleep when Mikey walked up to him.

"Danny." The ginger boy whispered frantically. "Danny get up." His voice was slightly scared and panicked.

Danny opened his bleary eyes to see Mikey leaning over him with a nervous, scared expression on his face. Mikey looked visibly relieved that Danny was awake and started rambling. Danny caught the words, "A-listers", "think", and "possessed". Those words were enough to get him up.

"Mikey, stop, slow down, and repeat." Danny said.

Mikey took a deep breath and then said, "I think the A-listers are possessed." His voice was full of urgency that wasn't necessary to get Danny's attention. Danny was alert at the word possessed. Danny's ghost sense hadn't gone off, so that was strike one against Mikey's theory, but Danny wouldn't take any chances.

He shot up ignoring his very sore ribs and looked at the A-listers. They seemed normal enough, but there were a couple sure fire tests. The first one was to check their eye color. Danny stood and walked directly to the A-listers, ignoring Mikey's panicky protests. The A-listers stopped talking to look at him. He had no reason that they knew to approach them. Their eyes were all normal, but that didn't mean much. A ghost could hide their eye color unless they were really angry, nervous, or happy. "Um, is there something you wanted, Danny?" Paulina asked politely.

All the occupants of the room, except Jack, Sam, and Tucker, who were all asleep looked to watch Danny's interaction. Danny's head turned sharply and he looked Paulina directly in the eye for any flicker of color change. It was entirely unlike Paulina to be polite to anyone. Paulina looked around nervous under the scrutiny of Danny, but her eyes remained their natural color. Danny took a step back and watch all of the A-listers eyes as he said, "I'm sorry I thought you might be possessed, and I needed to check." Normally a ghost being caught like that would flash their eyes in shock, but though all the A-listers looked shocked their eyes remained the same.

"Possessed!?" Star asked, "Why would you think that?"

Danny turned away from the A-listers, but he still watched them out of the corner of his eyes as he said, "I don't know. Why did you think they were possessed, Mikey?"

Mikey looked extremely nervous at being put under the spotlight, but all the A-listers looked toward Mikey and their eyes remained the same. Danny was really starting to doubt that the A-listers were possessed, but he was curious why Mikey thought so. "I, um, I-"

"Wait, you told, Danny we were possessed?" Dash growled.

"Well I overheard, your conversation, and it made sense." Mikey said hesitantly.

"Conversation?" Danny asked looking between Mikey and the A-listers.

The Kwan and Paulina looked confused, but Star looked nervous, and Dash looked pissed. "You thought we were possessed because we agreed to start helping you and the rest of the F-list!?" Dash almost yelled.

Mikey cowered behind Danny and Danny held out his arms to stop Dash. "Wait, wait, wait. What conversation?" Danny turned to Mikey and said, "It's obvious to me that they aren't possessed Mikey, so what made you say they were?"

Mikey stuttered out a few syllables, but Star got impatient and answered for the poor nerd. "We changed the requirements of an A-list membership. The requirements used to be money, good looks, and never being nice to a loser."

Danny's curiosity barely won out over his want to sleep as he asked, "What changed?"

Kwan answered with a proud grin, "Instead of never being nice to a loser we're going to help them out of trouble whenever we can."

Danny's mouth fell open in shock and Mikey said, "See! See! It's not normal! Nice A-listers! They have to be possessed!" The A-listers glared at Mikey. Then Danny did something no one expected. He started chuckling, then laughing, until there were tears rolling down his face as he was clutching his side in pain.

"Danny," Paulina hesitantly asked, "are you okay?"

Danny took a few deep breaths to stabilize himself and said, "S-sorry. It's just, Mikey literally thought you guys were possessed because you decided to do something nice." Danny chuckled again, "I can't wait to tell Sam and Tucker. They're going to think I'm lying." Danny smiled and started to walk back to his bench. As he walked away he said over his shoulder, "Good luck on keeping to your new rule."

With that final sentence Danny flopped down onto his bench and almost immediately fell asleep. Everyone watched Danny walk back to his make-shift bed and start to snore, then the A-listers eyes fell back on Mikey, glaring. Mikey chuckled nervously and shuffled back to Nathan and Lester, and the A-listers shared an exasperated look before they settled in to follow Danny's example. It had been a long day, and the nerds soon joined the rest of the class in sleep. Finally Maddie went to sleep, and only Mr. Lancer was left.

The bald teacher had far too much on his mind for sleep. He knew that the A-listers got special treatment sometimes for their academics and involvement in the school teams, and he knew the A-listers at times took advantage of that privilege, but he never thought they went out of their way to be mean to specific students. It was even a rule to be in their club! It was so bad that Mikey thought the A-listers were possessed for suggesting something nice! How long had it been going on? Maybe as long as the A-list had existed. That was a depressing thought, that all the kids lower on the social ladder could have been being severely bullied since freshmen year, and nothing had been done about it. At least the A-list had come to it's senses and was now changing the rules, but it shouldn't have been up to teenagers to fix the problem. The teachers should have fixed it long ago.

That seemed to be the true theme behind Mr. Lancer's unease. This field trip was making him aware that three of his students were more experienced than most adults. It was obvious to everyone now that those three had been through hell at some point if not at multiple points in time, and everyone had missed it. What had the secret trio been through to make them like they were?

Mr. Lancer started piling the facts he had in his mind trying to solve the puzzle. He knew all three of the trio lied constantly. That much was obvious. Danny didn't trust his parents, if them not knowing about his trips to the ghost zone were anything to go by. Danny trusted his two friends above anyone else. Danny often left in the middle of class, or came in late, and his friends sometimes were gone with him. The trio was scarred, Sam and Tucker less than Danny, but that wasn't saying much considering the condition of Danny's body. The trio was able to bounce back to acting normal almost immediately after a truly traumatizing event. It just didn't add up. It couldn't be drugs or a gang, because Danny and Tucker were too good for that, but what else was there that matched those symptoms. The questions were starting to drive the teacher insane, so finally he forced himself to sleep.


End file.
